Bertrand Russell, letter to Lady Ottoline on April 23, 1912, quoted in Brian McGuinness, Young Ludwig: Wittgenstein's life, 1889-1921 (1988)
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He lives in the same kind of tense excitement as I do, hardly able to sit still or read a book. He was talking about Beethoven — how a friend described going to Beethoven's door and hearing him 'cursing and howling and singing' over his new fugue; after a whole hour Beethoven at last came to the door, looking as if he had been fighting the devil, and had eaten nothing for 36 hours because his cook and parlour-maid had been away from his rage. That's the sort of man to be.

— Bertrand Russell on Ludwig Wittgenstein

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "He lives in the same kind of tense excitement as I do, hardly able to sit still or read a book. He was talking about Beethoven — how a friend described going to Beethoven's door and hearing him 'cursing and howling and singing' over his new fugue; after a whole hour Beethoven at last came to the door, looking as if he had been fighting the devil, and had eaten nothing for 36 hours because his cook and parlour-maid had been away from his rage. That's the sort of man to be." in the context of "Bertrand Russell, letter to Lady Ottoline on April 23, 1912, quoted in Brian McGuinness, Young Ludwig: Wittgenstein's life, 1889-1921 (1988)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Ludwig Wittgenstein" (Quotes about Wittgenstein) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed February 08, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Bertrand Russell

About Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (May 18, 1872 – February 2, 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. In 1950, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature.