“The world is everything that is the case. .. The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”

“A proposition cannot express anything which is higher.”

“If in the midst of life, we are in death; so in sanity, we are surrounded by madness.”

“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”

The above remarks made by Ludwig Wittgenstein certainly remind us to be careful about what we say and what we write. And words are clearly a tool that has its limitations.

That said, it looks it is difficult to think of another tool that so far has been more powerful and effective than language and words in terms of creating, fine-tuning, preserving and spreading civilizations and wisdom developed by the Humanities than words

In any case, we may well be able to expand the boundary of the legitimate usage of words somewhat if we can use it intelligently and creatively with background about its limitations in mind.

As Arthur Schopenhauer has reminded us:  “Thoughts, reduced to paper, generally represent nothing more than footprints left by a man walking on the sand; you see the path he has taken; but to know what he has seen along the way, you have to use your own eyes.” 

When commenting about one of his students, Ludwig Wittgenstein was said to have once made the following remark:  “He doesn’t even know philosophy. How can he know poetry?”

Perhaps, words, poetry and thoughts do occupy a special place in the civilization created by the Humanities.

“..When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. .. “

The above quotation was from a speech made by John F. Kennedy in 26 October 1963, a few weeks before his assassination.  And in the same speech, John F. Kennedy has also described a state where perhaps our human civilization should always try avoid becoming: “nothing to look backward to with pride, and nothing to look forward to with hope.”

We think words is a medium that can help Human civilization to become one that “We can look backward to with Pride, and look forward to with Hope.”