The word "art" does not designate the concept of a mere eventuality; it is a concept of rank.

Do the essences of proposition and of the truth determine themselves from out of the essence of the thing, or does the essence of the thing determine itself from out of the essence of the proposition? The question is posed as an either/or. However does this either/or itself suffice? Are the essence of the thing and the essence of the proposition only built as mirror images because both of them together determine themselves from out of the same but deeper lying root? However, what and where can be this common ground for the essence of the thing and of the proposition and of their origin? The unconditioned (Unbedingt)? We stated at the beginning that what conditions the essense of the thing in its thingness can no longer itself be thing and conditioned, it must be an unconditioned (Un-bedingtes).

Human beings have a physical need to tell themselves when at work: "Let's have done with it now," and it's having constantly to go on thinking in the face of this need when philosophizing that makes this work so strenuous.

I believe that one of the things Christianity says is that sound doctrines are all useless. That you have to change your life. (Or the direction of your life.)

It's only by thinking even more crazily than philosophers do that you can solve their problems.

The way you use the word "God" does not show whom you mean - but, rather, what you mean.

For a truly religious man nothing is tragic.

One might say: art shows us the miracles of nature. It is based on the concept of the miracles of nature.

The Sabbath is not simply a time to rest, to recuperate. We should look at our work from the outside, not just from within.

Wisdom is passionless. But faith by contrast is what Kierkegaard calls a passion.

Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness, but come down into the green valleys of silliness.

A hero looks death in the face, real death, not just the image of death. Behaving honourably in a crisis doesn't mean being able to act the part of a hero well, as in the theatre, it means being able to look death itself in the eye. For an actor may play lots of different roles, but at the end of it all he himself, the human being, is the one who has to die.

It seems to me that, in every culture, I come across a chapter headed Wisdom. And then I know exactly what is going to follow: Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

You could attach prices to ideas. Some cost a lot some little. ... And how do you pay for ideas? I believe: with courage.

One age misunderstands another; and a petty age misunderstands all the others in its own ugly way.

Religion is, as it were, the calm bottom of the sea at its deepest point, which remains calm however high the waves on the surface may be.

Ambition is the death of thought.

The less somebody knows and understands himself the less great he is, however great may be his talent. For this reason our scientists are not great.

You must always be puzzled by mental illness. The thing I would dread most, if I became mentally ill, would be your adopting a common sense attitude; that you could take it for granted that I was deluded.

If life becomes hard to bear we think of improvements. But the most important and effective improvement, in our own attitude, hardly occurs to us, and we can decide on this only with the utmost difficulty.

Philosophy hasn't made any progress?-If someone scratches where it itches, do we have to see progress? Is it not genuine scratching otherwise, or genuine itching?

"I never believed in God before." - that I understand. But not: "I never really believed in Him before."

I would really like to slow down the speed of reading with continual punctuation marks. For I would like to be read slowly. (As I myself read.)

"Fare well!" "A whole world of pain is contained in these words." How can it be contained in them? - It is bound up in them. The words are like an acorn from which an oak tree can grow.

It is so characteristic, that just when the mechanics of reproduction are so vastly improved, there are fewer and fewer people who know how the music should be played.

Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie.

Philosophy is like trying to open a safe with a combination lock: each little adjustment of the dials seems to achieve nothing, only when everything is in place does the door open.

Freud's fanciful pseudo-explanations (precisely because they are brilliant) perform a disservice. (Now any ass has these pictures available to use in "explaining" symptoms of an illness).

Nothing is more important than the formation of fictional concepts, which teach us at last to understand our own.

You could attach prices to thoughts. Some cost a lot, some a little. And how does one pay for thoughts? The answer, I think, is: with courage.

Animals come when their names are called. Just like human beings.

A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring.

I am showing my pupils details of an immense landscape which they cannot possibly know their way around.

If a false thought is so much as expressed boldly and clearly, a great deal has already been gained.

If life becomes hard to bear we think of a change in our circumstances. But the most important and effective change, a change in our own attitude, hardly even occurs to us, and the resolution to take such a step is very difficult for us.

Is it just I who cannot found a school, or can a philosopher never do so?

The purely corporeal can be uncanny. Compare the way angels and devils are portrayed. So-called "miracles" must be connected with this. A miracle must be, as it were, a sacred gesture.

If a person tells me he has been to the worst places I have no reason to judge him; but if he tells me it was his superior wisdom that enabled him to go there, then I know he is a fraud.

Don't for heaven's sake, be afraid of talking nonsense! But you must pay attention to your nonsense.

If someone asked us 'but is that true?' we might say "yes" to him; and if he demanded grounds we might say "I can't give you any grounds, but if you learn more you too will think the same."

Courage, not cleverness; not even inspiration, is the grain of mustard that grows up to be a great tree.

To obey a rule, to make a report, to give an order, to play a game of chess, are customs.

Reading the Socratic dialogues one has the feeling: what a frightful waste of time! What's the point of these arguments that prove nothing and clarify nothing?

If a lion could talk, we could not understand him.

In philosophy the race is to the one who can run slowest-the one who crosses the finish line last.

What we do is to bring words back from their metaphysical to their everyday use.

I am sitting with a philosopher in the garden; he says again and again "I know that that's a tree", pointing to a tree that is near us. Someone else arrives and hears this, and I tell them: "This fellow isn't insane. We are only doing philosophy."

Does man think because he has found that thinking pays? Does he bring his children up because he has found it pays?

Resting on your laurels is as dangerous as resting when you are walking in the snow. You doze off and die in your sleep.

Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination.