Wittgenstein on Christmas Day

‘I am a beast and am still not unhappy about it’, he wrote on Christmas Day. ‘I am in danger of becoming still more superficial. May God prevent it!’

The reason being that, when shortly after he arrived in Vienna to spend Christmas with Marguerite (his love) and with his family, she announced that she no longer wished to kiss him. Her feelings for him, she explained, were not of the appropriate kind. Wittgenstein did not take the hint.

The problem, as he saw it, was not to win her over but to conquer his own desires. That's when he said the above.

(Ray Monk - Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius)