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Who really said it

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent

Written by Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889–1951 · Austrian-British philosopher
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This is the closing line — proposition 7 — of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. The exact English wording is C. K. Ogden’s 1922 translation of the German “Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen.” Confirmed against the parallel German–English edition.

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

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“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent” Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, proposition 7 (trans. C. K. Ogden, 1922)

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Provenance

The source

Work
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, proposition 7
Original
“Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen” (German, 1921)
Translation
C. K. Ogden, 1922 (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.)
Position
The book’s final line — a bare proposition with no sub-propositions

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Proposition 7 in full — it is a single sentence standing alone at the close of the book.

Tractatus, proposition 7 (Wikisource, Ogden translation)

The paper trail

  • The line is proposition 7, the concluding sentence of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus ↗, first published in German in 1921 and in English in 1922.
  • The exact wording — with the archaic “whereof…thereof” — is C. K. Ogden’s 1922 translation ↗; the German original reads “Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen.”
  • A later, widely used rendering by Pears and McGuinness (1961) gives the same proposition as “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence,” per the work’s publication history ↗.
Public domain

Both the German original (1921) and C. K. Ogden’s English translation (1922) were published before 1931, so this exact English wording is in the public domain in the United States. Note that the alternative Pears–McGuinness translation (1961) is a separate, in-copyright rendering — it does not use this wording.

This reflects the original work, which is public domain. If your exact English wording comes from a specific modern translation, that translation may itself still be under copyright — check the edition you quote.

Fact-check

A note on wording

The attribution here is solid — this really is Wittgenstein. The confusion is about which words are his, since the line exists in more than one English translation.

C. K. Ogden (translator) translation credit

The memorable “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent” phrasing is Ogden’s 1922 English translation ↗, not Wittgenstein’s own German. Wittgenstein wrote “Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen.”

Pears & McGuinness different wording

The 1961 Pears–McGuinness edition renders proposition 7 as “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence,” per the Tractatus publication history ↗ — so quoting the “whereof/thereof” form specifically means quoting Ogden.

The thought and the sentence are genuinely Wittgenstein’s — proposition 7 of the Tractatus ↗ — and this particular English wording is Ogden’s 1922 translation.

Context

Why it matters

Proposition 7 is the last of the seven numbered theses that structure the Tractatus. Everything before it tries to map the boundary between what language can meaningfully state (facts about the world) and what it cannot — ethics, aesthetics, the mystical, the sense of life. The final line draws that boundary shut: about what lies beyond, one must be silent.

Wittgenstein did not mean this dismissively. In his own view the “unsayable” things were the most important, which is part of why the sentence has resonated far beyond technical philosophy.

About what lies beyond the limits of language — one must be silent.

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Filed under

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

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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.

Tractatus proposition 7 (Wikisource)en.wikisource.org

The Ogden-translation text of the final proposition, verbatim.
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Ogden, full text)gutenberg.org

Project Gutenberg’s complete C. K. Ogden 1922 English translation.
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicusen.wikipedia.org

Publication history and the Ogden vs. Pears–McGuinness translation debate.
Side-by-side German / Ogden / Pears–McGuinness editionpeople.umass.edu

Kevin Klement’s parallel-text edition letting you compare all three renderings of prop. 7.
Ludwig Wittgensteinen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the author and overview of his work.

The true author

About the author

Ludwig Wittgenstein

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

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) was among the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. His first book, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (German 1921, English 1922), sought to fix the limits of what language can meaningfully say; its austere seventh and final proposition is its most-quoted line. He later repudiated much of the Tractatus in the posthumous Philosophical Investigations (1953).

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Translated by C. K. Ogden. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1922, proposition 7 (p. 189). First published in German in Annalen der Naturphilosophie, 1921.

MLA (9th ed.)

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Translated by C. K. Ogden, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1922, proposition 7.

APA (7th ed.)

Wittgenstein, L. (1922). Tractatus logico-philosophicus (C. K. Ogden, Trans.). Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. (Original work published 1921)

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/whereof-one-cannot-speak-thereof-one-must-be-silent

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