Umberto Eco Quotes
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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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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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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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Today, political events are nullified unless they're on TV.
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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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The comic is the perception of the opposite; humor is the feeling of it.
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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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After all, the cultivated person's first duty is to be always prepared to rewrite the encyclopaedia.
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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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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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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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Our most noted satirists are true columnists, and their opinions can be worth more than any well-documented expose.
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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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At a certain moment, I decided to write a story. I had no more small children to tell them stories.
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What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible.
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From lies to forgeries the step is not so long, and I have written technical essays on the logic of forgeries and on the influence of forgeries on history.
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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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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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When one starts writing a book, especially a novel, even the humblest person in the world hopes to become Homer.
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I write what I write.
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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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In the United States, politics is a profession, whereas in Europe it is a right and a duty.
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Someone said that patriotism is the last refuge of cowards; those without moral principles usually wrap a flag around themselves, and those bastards always talk about the purity of race.