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Who really said it

A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes

Attributed to Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889–1951 · Austrian-British philosopher
Attributed In copyright

Wittgenstein really did voice this idea — but the record for it is secondhand: his friend Norman Malcolm reported in his Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir (1958) that Wittgenstein “once said” a serious and good philosophical work could consist entirely of jokes. The neat popular wording “consisting entirely of jokes” is a later paraphrase of Malcolm’s sentence, not a line Wittgenstein himself wrote or published.

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Unconfirmed quote & credit

“A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes” Ludwig Wittgenstein, as reported in Norman Malcolm, Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir (1958). The popular wording "consisting entirely of jokes" is a paraphrase of Malcolm's text.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Estate of Norman Malcolm / Oxford University Press). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Ludwig Wittgenstein — Austrian-British philosopher of logic & language. Theme: "A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Provenance

The source behind the quote

Reported words of
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Documented in
Norman Malcolm, Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir (1958)
Nature
Secondhand report of an oral remark; popular form is a paraphrase

It is worth noting that Wittgenstein once said that a serious and good philosophical work could be written that would consist entirely of jokes (without being facetious).

Malcolm’s original sentence. Notice it is Malcolm reporting what Wittgenstein “once said” — and it reads “consist entirely of jokes,” not the smoother “consisting entirely of jokes” that now circulates.

Norman Malcolm, Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir (1958), documented at WIST

How we trace it

  • The genuine remark comes from Wittgenstein’s friend Norman Malcolm, who wrote that Wittgenstein “once said” such a work could “consist entirely of jokes (without being facetious)” in his 1958 Memoir.
  • Wikiquote does not file this under sourced Wittgenstein: it places the popular wording in its “Attributed” section, tracing the exact circulating form to a 2004 publication rather than to Malcolm.
  • One study of the quote’s afterlife argues it is “real, but fake now” — authentically Wittgensteinian, yet usually cited in a paraphrased form detached from its actual source, per The Philosopher’s Meme.
In copyright

The line is preserved only in Norman Malcolm’s Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir, first published in 1958 — comfortably within copyright — and the exact popular wording surfaces in later 20th/21st-century publications. Wittgenstein spoke the thought aloud, but there is no pre-1931 or Wittgenstein-authored printed source for it, so it is not public domain.

Fact-check

What people get wrong

This is an unusual case: the attribution to Wittgenstein is basically fair, but the way it is quoted quietly misrepresents the record.

Ludwig Wittgenstein Paraphrase

Wittgenstein never wrote this sentence in any of his books or notebooks. It survives only because Norman Malcolm remembered him saying something like it and wrote it down years later — a secondhand report, not a primary text (Malcolm, Memoir, 1958).

“consisting entirely of jokes” Reworded

Malcolm’s actual sentence reads “a serious and good philosophical work could be written that would consist entirely of jokes (without being facetious).” The tidy modern version drops the “without being facetious” qualifier and smooths the grammar; Wikiquote logs the circulating form as Attributed, not sourced.

Bottom line: the joke about jokes is really Wittgenstein’s, but you are quoting Norman Malcolm’s paraphrase of an offhand remark — not a sentence Wittgenstein ever published, per Malcolm’s Memoir.

Context

Why it resonates

The remark is quoted so often because it captures something real about Wittgenstein’s method: his later work proceeds by odd little scenarios, imaginary interlocutors and puzzles that unsettle you into seeing a confusion — more like a comic’s reframes than a treatise’s proofs.

That is exactly why it circulates unchecked. It feels so authentically Wittgensteinian that few readers pause to ask whether he wrote it — and he did not; his friend Norman Malcolm did, from memory.

Real Wittgenstein, in Norman Malcolm’s words.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Wisdom Creativity

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Ludwig Wittgensteinen.wikiquote.org

Lists the popular wording under “Attributed,” not among sourced quotations.
Wittgenstein quotation recordwist.info

Documents the line as from Malcolm’s 1958 Memoir and flags the popular form as a paraphrase.
Wittgenstein’s most beloved quotethephilosophersmeme.com

Traces the paraphrase and argues the quote is “real, but fake now.”
Ludwig Wittgensteinplato.stanford.edu

Stanford Encyclopedia overview of Wittgenstein’s life and philosophy.
Norman Malcolmen.wikipedia.org

On the American philosopher and Wittgenstein friend whose memoir preserves the remark.

The philosopher

About Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein

1889–1951 · Austrian-British philosopher of logic & language

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) was among the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, author of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) and the posthumous Philosophical Investigations (1953). He worked at Cambridge and was known for gnomic, aphoristic remarks — many of which reach us only through the notebooks and memoirs of students and friends such as Norman Malcolm.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Ludwig Wittgenstein, as reported in Norman Malcolm, Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir (London: Oxford University Press, 1958), p. 28.

MLA (9th ed.)

Malcolm, Norman. Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir. Oxford University Press, 1958, p. 28.

APA (7th ed.)

Malcolm, N. (1958). Ludwig Wittgenstein: A memoir. Oxford University Press.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/a-serious-and-good-philosophical-work-could-be-written

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