Quotes from Umberto Eco

A paradox is a genuine reversal of the commonly accepted point of view, one that presents an unacceptable world, thereby eliciting resistance and rejection, and yet, if we make an effort to understand it, it is one that leads to knowledge; eventually it seems to be witty because it has to be admitted that it is true.

Pengetahuan Tuhan mewujud dalam pengetahuan manusia

hay que valerse de la risa para desarmar la seriedad de los oponentes, y a la risa, en cambio, oponer la seriedad.

Deception is a state of mind and the mind of the state (attributed to James Jesus Angleton)

Madmen and children always speak the truth.

the more openly it remains a figure of speech, the more it is a dissimilar similitude and not literal, the more a metaphor reveals its truth.

The Templars realized that the secret lay not only in possessing the global map of the currents, but also in knowing the critical point, the Omphalos, the Umbilicus Telluris, the Navel of the World, the Source of Command.

There always exists a context that is capable of reproposing as new a codified catachresis or dead metaphor.

I felt dull and somnolent, for daytime sleep is like the sin of the flesh: the more you have the more you want, and yet you feel unhappy, sated and unsated at the same time. William

But why, everybody asks, am I not blessed by fortune (or at least not as blessed as I would like to be)? Why have I not been favored like others who are less deserving? No one believes their misfortunes are attributable to any shortcomings of their own; that is why they must find a culprit.

Nav nek?, ko es zin?tu. Ir lietas, ko saj?t sirds...

he would learn—truth is brief (afterward, it is all commentary). So

We are a pluralist civilisation because we allow mosques to be built in our countries, and we are not going to stop simply because Christian missionaries are thrown into prison in Kabul. If we did so, we, too, would become Taliban.

In other words, although I don't like them, we do need noble-spirited souls.

Chi ride è malvagio solo per chi crede in ciò di cui si ride.

But I must hope that books possess a life of a more varied kind than their authors' myopia concedes to them. A book is a kind of of machine which the reader can freely use as a generator of intellectual stimulation. It is enough that the book should be truly a machine for thinking, that it should generate a variety of possible conclusions without its author's ordaining and limiting them in advance.

Wer nicht liest, wird mit 70 Jahren nur ein einziges Leben gelebt haben: Sein eigenes. Wer liest, wird 5000 Jahre gelebt haben: Er war dabei, als Kain Abel tötete, als Renzo Lucia heiratete, als Leopardi die Unendlichkeit bewunderte. Denn Lesen ist eine Unsterblichkeit nach hinten." – Der Name der Rose (S. 124 bis 130) von Umberto Eco

I am gripped by an irresistible urge to kill myself, but I know it's the devil tempting me.

La nostra identità non è fatta solo delle cose che ricordiamo, ma anche di ciò che riusciamo a dimenticare.

If a shepherd errs, he must be isolated from other shepherds, but woe unto us if the sheep begin to distrust shepherds.

Los hombres nunca hacen el mal de forma tan completa y entusiasta como cuando lo hacen por convencimiento religioso.

To each memorable image you attach a thought, a label, a category, a piece of the cosmic furniture, syllogisms, an enormous sorites, chains of apothegms, strings of hypallages, rosters of zeugmas, dances of hysteron proteron, apophantic logoi, hierarchic stoichea, processions of equinoxes and parallaxes, herbaria, genealogies of gymnosophists—and so on, to infinity.

The young no longer want to study anything, learning is in decline, the whole world walks on its head, blind men lead others equally blind and cause them to plunge into the abyss, birds leave the nest before they can fly, the jackass plays the lyre, oxen dance. Mary no longer loves the contemplative life and Martha no longer loves the active life, Leah is sterile, Rachel has a carnal eye, Cato visits brothels. Everything is diverted from its proper course.

No importa la fe que ofrece determinado movimiento, sino la esperanza que propone