Quotes from Umberto Eco

Omnia mundi creatura quasi liber et pictura nobis est in speculum.

Empirical objects become signs (or they are looked at as signs) only from the point of view of a philosophical decision.

excessive love of God or of the truth, as the heretic is born from the saint and the possessed from the seer. Fear prophets, Adso, 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. Jorge did

All the world's follies," he replied, "turn up in publishing houses sooner or later. But the world's follies may also contain flashes of the wisdom of the Most High, so the wise man observes folly with humility." Then

He had perhaps seen fifty springs and was therefore already very old, but his tireless body moved with an agility I myself often lacked.

So Italy was invaded by these Fraticelli or Friars of the Poor Life, whom many considered dangerous. At this point it was difficult to distinguish the spiritual masters, who maintained contact with the ecclesiastical authorities, from their simpler followers, who now lived outside the order, begging for alms and existing from day to day by the labor of their hands, holding no property of any kind.

Do we really have to talk about professionalism? Everyone here is a professional. A master builder who puts up a wall that hasn't collapsed is certainly acting professionally, but professionalism ought to be the norm, and we should only be talking about the dodgy builder who puts up a wall that doesn't collapse....This insistence on professionalism, that it is something special, makes it sound as if people are generally lousy workers.

La juventud ya no quiere aprender nada, la ciencia está en decadencia, el mundo marcha patas arriba, los ciegos guían a otros ciegos y los despeñan en los abismos, los pájaros se arrojan antes de haber echado a volar, el asno toca la lira, los bueyes bailan, María ya no ama la vida contemplativa y Marta ya no ama la vida activa, Lea es estéril, Raquel está llena de lascivia, Catón frecuenta los lupanares, Lucrecio se convierte en mujer.

Ok now--I don't read all the time. Remember, that these ratings are over quite a while. I'll try to put in some comments over what I've been reading lately. I like Vince Flynn's spy/thrillers. Also, check out Umberto Eco's one On Beauty--not the precise title, but great art/comments. Also, Sophie's World if you like a pretty unusual story with philosophy mixed in.

sách là má»™t sinh v?t y?u Ä'u?i, nó ch?u Ä'á»±ng sá»± bào mòn c?a th?i gian, s? các loài g?m nh?m, k? th?y, k? h?a, và e ng?i nh?ng bàn tay v?ng v?, c?c m?ch.

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously three old owls on a chest of drawers were screwing the daughter of the doctor. But then the mother called them, colorless green ideas slepp furiously.

Poate c? datoria celui care-i iubeÅŸte pe oameni este s?-i fac? s? râd? de adev?r, s? fac? adev?rul s? râd?, pentru c? singurul adev?r este s? înv???m s? ne eliber?m de pasiunea nes?n?toas? pentru adev?r.

Sensing that I ought to become more closely involved in political matters, I realized the most attractive news to fabricate would be what these idle minds were expecting, rather than what the newspapers reported as solid fact.

Ca s? slujeÅŸti cu competen?? legea se cere s-o fi înc?lcat.

And since I wanted you to feel as pleasurable the one thing that frightens us—namely, the metaphysical shudder—I had only to choose (from among the model plots) the most metaphysical and philosophical: the detective novel.

La creatividad significa saber quiénes somos. Es jazz sin música, es un flujo de energía. Ser creativos es ser valientes

Vallet wrote of something else. Stimulated in some mysterious way by what he was saying, I made that connection myself and, and as I identified the idea with the text I was underlining, I attributed it to Vallet. And for more than twenty years I had been grateful to the old abbot for something he had never given me. I had produced the magic key on my own.

We've been led astray by rationalist thought," Diotallevi said. "I keep telling you.

Among the many certainties whose lack he complained of, one alone is present, and it is that all things appear to us as they appear to us, and it is impossible for them to appear otherwise.

todo ideales y nada de ideas.

Vai via ora, mi disse in fretta, ti ho detto quello che volevi sapere. Di qui il coro degli angeli, di là la gola dell'inferno.

El ingenuo dominico dice que también él ha pedido el permiso y se lo han negado. «Pero tú, ¿cómo lo has pedido?», le pregunta el jesuita. Y el dominico: «¿Puedo fumar mientras rezo?». Era obvio que le contestaran que no. En cambio, el jesuita preguntó «¿Puedo rezar mientras fumo?», y los superiores le dijeron que se podía rezar en cualquier circunstancia.

En París siempre tienen la respuesta verdadera? —Nunca, pero están muy seguros de sus errores.

Having come from the light and from the gods, here I am in exile, separated from them. —Fragment of Turfa'n M7