Full Idea
The world is the totality of facts, not of things. The world is determined by the facts, and by their being all the facts. The totality of facts determines what is the case, and what is not the case. ..The world divides into facts.
Gist of Idea
The world is facts, not things. Facts determine the world, and the world divides into facts
Source
Ludwig Wittgenstein (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus [1921], 1 - 1.2)
Book Reference
Wittgenstein,Ludwig: 'Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Pears)', ed/tr. Pears,D. /McGuinness,B. [RKP 1961], p.5
A Reaction
This is said to be a radical new ontology, because the facts are held to be prior to the things and their properties, which are presumably abstractions from the primitive facts. The modern heir of this is Armstrong's 'states of affairs'.