Something that sticks in my head about Wittgenstein (someone correct me if I'm getting this wrong) was that during World War 2, Wittgenstein felt that being a professor of philosophy at Cambridge was 'intolerable' and went to work as a hospital porter instead, incognito.
Also, favourite quote:
"A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring."
He also volunteered for military service in world war 1, and when he reached the front line volunteered for the extremely dangerous assignment of crawling into no-man’s land alone to make observations of the enemy. He said it seemed absurd to be a volunteer among draftees and not take on the most dangerous missions.
His World War I journal portrays him has an very egoistical man, with a violent contempt to everyone, including his comrades. He wrote: "It is almost impossible to find a trace of humanity in them [the men of his unit]" and, about marines, "I often cannot discern the human being in a man". As an extremely wealthy and high-class officer, he despised the low ranked soldiers ("stupid", "malicious", "pigs"...), but also the other officers ("pigs", "utterly limited"). He volunteered for the army of Austro-Hungarian empire and expected others to follow; he failed to understand that the e.g. Serbian soldiers whose people was oppressed by the empire did not share his views.
I don't care about his personal life, but since this thread was turning into an hagiography, I just wanted to draw a more complex portray.
Also, favourite quote:
"A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring."