Umberto Eco Quotes
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The comic is the perception of the opposite; humor is the feeling of it.
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In the United States there's a Puritan ethic and a mythology of success. He who is successful is good. In Latin countries, in Catholic countries, a successful person is a sinner.
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I developed a passion for the Middle Ages the same way some people develop a passion for coconuts.
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The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. You cannot make a spoon that is better than a spoon... The book has been thoroughly tested, and it's very hard to see how it could be improved on for its current purposes.
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I don't see the point of having 80 million people online if all they are doing in the end is talking to ghosts in the suburbs.
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The mobile phone... is a tool for those whose professions require a fast response, such as doctors or plumbers.
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Sometimes you say things with a smile with the precise intention of making it clear that you are not being serious, and are only kidding. If I salute a friend with a smile and say, 'How are you, you old scoundrel!' clearly I don't really mean he's a scoundrel.
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After all, the cultivated person's first duty is to be always prepared to rewrite the encyclopaedia.
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Today, political events are nullified unless they're on TV.
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There is no great sport in having bullets flying about one in every direction, but I find they have less horror when among them than when in anticipation.
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There are more people than you think who want to have a challenging experience, in which they are obliged to reflect about the past.
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Fear prophets and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them.
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The light in her eyes was beyond description, yet it did not instill improper thoughts: it inspired a love tempered by awe, purifying the hearts it inflamed.
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What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible.
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If you interact with things in your life, everything is constantly changing. And if nothing changes, you're an idiot.
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That day, I began to be incredulous. Or, rather, I regretted having been credulous. I regretted having allowed myself to be borne away by a passion of the mind. Such is credulity.
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Today I realize that many recent exercises in "deconstructive reading" read as if inspired by my parody. This is parody's mission: it must never be afraid of going too far. If its aim is true, it simply heralds what others will later produce, unblushing, with impassive and assertive gravity.
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At a certain moment, I decided to write a story. I had no more small children to tell them stories.
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It is sometimes hard to grasp the difference between identifying with one's own roots, understanding people with other roots, and judging what is good or bad.
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In the United States, politics is a profession, whereas in Europe it is a right and a duty.
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A human best, which is very little. Its hard to accept the idea that there cannot be an order in the universe because it would offend the free will of God and His omnipotence. So the freedom of God is our condemnation, or at least the condemnation of our pride.
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If western culture is shown to be rich, it is because, even before the Enlightenment, it has tried to 'dissolve' harmful simplifications through inquiry and the critical mind.
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The thought that all experience will be lost at the moment of my death makes me feel pain and fear... What a waste, decades spent building up experience, only to throw it all away... We remedy this sadness by working. For example, by writing, painting, or building cities.
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At most, recognizing that our history was inspired by many tales we now recognize as false should make us alert, ready to call to constantly into question the very tale we believe true, because the criterion of the wisdom of the community is based on constant awareness of the fallibility of our learning.