Quotes from Umberto Eco

The dove, as it flies in the sun, seems simply to sparkle like silver, but only one who has been able to wait at length to discover its hidden face will see its true gold or, rather, the color of a shining orange.

Because if the Masters of the World exist, they can only be underground: this is a truth that all sense but few dare utter. Perhaps

Diotallevi and Belbo, both from Piedmont, often claimed that any good Piedmontese had the ability to listen politely, look you in the eye, and say "You think so?" in a tone of such apparent sincerity that you immediately felt his profound disapproval

Signora, there's nothing in this world that demands more caution than the truth. To tell the truth is like leeching one's own heart….

I felt no passion, no jealousy, no nostalgia. I was hollow, clear-headed, clean, and as emotionless as an aluminum pot.

They keep saying that their kingdom is not of this world, then take everything they can lay their hands on.

Born as the raising to the nth power of that initial (and rational) waste that is sports recreation, sports chatter is the glorification of Waste, and therefore the maximum point of Consumption. On it and in it the consumer civilization man actually consumes himself (and every possibility of thematizing and judging the enforced consumption to which his is invited and subjected).

A civilização não chegará à perfeição enquanto a última pedra da última igreja não tiver caído sobre o último padre, e a Terra tiver sido libertada daquela escória.

For the enemy to be recognized and feared, he has to be in your home or on your doorstep. Hence the Jews. Divine providence has given them to us, and so, by God, let us use them, and pray there's always some Jew to fear and to hate. We need an enemy to give people hope.

U.Eco habla de la época greco-latina]: No es que no hayan existido mujeres que filosofaran. Es que los filósofos han preferido olvidarlas, tal vez después de haberse apropiado de sus ideas /[U. Eco is talking about the Greco-Latin era]; It is not that there had not been women philosophers. It is that male philosophers have preferred to forget them, perhaps after having appropriated their ideas.

we never cease hoping--and thus did our Judge condemn us to suffer in saecula.' Ferrante asked: 'But what is it that you hope for?' You might as well ask what you will hope for yourself. ...You will hope that a wisp of wind, the slightest swell of the tide, the arrival of a single hungry leech, can return us, atom by atom, to the great Void of the Universe, where we would somehow again participate in the cycle of life.

Oysa ÅŸimdi, dünyan?n zarars?z bir bilmece olduÄŸunu, ard?nda bir gerçek varm?? gibi onu aç?klamaya kalk??ma ç?lg?nl???m?z?n onu korkunçlaÅŸt?rd???na inan?yorum.

But it was the newspapers that called John XXIII the Good Pope, and the people followed suit." "That's right. Newspapers teach people how to think," Simei said. "But do newspapers follow trends or create trends?" "They do both, Signorina Fresia. People don't know what the trends are, so we tell them, then they know. But let's not get too involved in philosophy—we're professionals. Carry on, Colonna.

The good of a book lies in its being read. A book is made up of signs that speak of other signs, which in their turn speak of things. Without an eye to read them, a book contains signs that produce no concepts; therefore it is dumb. This library was perhaps born to save the books it houses, but now it lives to bury them. This is why it has become a sink of iniquity.

Für jedes komplexe Problem gibt es eine einfache Lösung, und die ist die falsche.

el individuo pasa de un consumo a otro en una especie de bulimia sin objetivo (el nuevo teléfono móvil nos ofrece poquísimas prestaciones nuevas respecto al viejo, pero el viejo tiene que ir al desguace para participar en esta orgía del deseo).

And you," I said with childish impertinence, "never commit errors?" "Often," he answered. "But instead of conceiving only one, I imagine many, so I become the slave of none.

Stat rosa pristina nomine, nomina nuda tenemus. -Yesterday's rose endures in its name, we hold empty names.

He fell in love with his golem, found it a source of consolation. Life

Wherever you put it, Foucault's Pendulum swings from a motionless point while the earth rotates beneath it. Every point of the universe is a fixed point: all you have to do is hang the Pendulum from it.

Alchemy, however, is a chaste prostitute, who has many lovers but disappoints all and grants her favors to none. She transforms the haughty into fools, the rich into paupers, the philosophers into dolts, and the deceived into loquacious deceivers…. —Trithemius, Annalmm Hirsaugensium Tomi II, S. Gallo, 1690, 141

Les personnes de peu d'idées sont moins sujettes à l'erreur, elles suivent ce que tout le monde fait et ne dérangent personne, et elles réussissent, s'enrichissent, arrivent à de bonnes positions...

He replied that when your true enemies are too strong, you have to choose weaker enemies. I reflected that this is why the simple are so called. Only the powerful always know with great clarity who their true enemies are.

some impudent young Parisian had made a malicious reference in his presence to the latest theories suggesting a link between primitive man and lower species. Dumas replied: "Yes, sir, I do indeed come from the monkey. But you, sir, are returning to one!" He