Search quotes

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
3fb9f7b	Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn't ask ourselves what it says but what it means...		Umberto Eco
68b5b11	To survive, you must tell stories.		Umberto Eco
d007b3e	I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.	wisdom parenting	Umberto Eco
d4bcff3	I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.		Umberto Eco
28e4acd	The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.	heroism	Umberto Eco
51045ef	Then why do you want to know?" "Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do, but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do."	understanding learning	Umberto Eco
c333f01	People are never so completely and enthusiastically evil as when they act out of religious conviction.	religion fundamentalism fanaticism evil	Umberto Eco
d73e7f5	What is love? There is nothing in the world, neither man nor Devil nor any thing, that I hold as suspect as love, for it penetrates the soul more than any other thing. Nothing exists that so fills and binds the heart as love does. Therefore, unless you have those weapons that subdue it, the soul plunges through love into an immense abyss.		Umberto Eco
09094a5	Thus I rediscovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told.	storytelling story-telling	Umberto Eco
e799f87	Love is wiser than wisdom.		Umberto Eco
d97beea	There are four kinds of people in this world: cretins, fools, morons, and lunatics...Cretins don't even talk; they sort of slobber and stumble...Fools are in great demand, especially on social occasions. They embarrass everyone but provide material for conversation...Fools don't claim that cats bark, but they talk about cats when everyone else is talking about dogs. They offend all the rules of conversation, and when they really offend, the..		Umberto Eco
6f69117	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.		Umberto Eco
97f9be4	As the man said, for every complex problem there's a simple solution, and it's wrong.		Umberto Eco
2702530	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.	religion prophets	Umberto Eco
3137281	What is life if not the shadow of a fleeting dream?		Umberto Eco
e74984e	We live for books. A sweet mission in this world dominated by disorder and decay.		Umberto Eco
13e9809	Any fact becomes important when it's connected to another.	fiction fact connection	Umberto Eco
83d7956	Entering a novel is like going on a climb in the mountains: you have to learn the rhythm of respiration, acquire the pace; otherwise you stop right away.		Umberto Eco
4fdd6a5	When you are on the dancefloor, there is nothing to do but dance.		Umberto Eco
52b59fe	Monsters exist because they are part of the divine plan, and in the horrible features of those same monsters the power of the creator is revealed.		Umberto Eco
ac3f020	We were clever enough to turn a laundry list into poetry.		Umberto Eco
4be7478	A dream is a scripture, and many scriptures are nothing but dreams.		Umberto Eco
ac95af4	To read fiction means to play a game by which we give sense to the immensity of things that happened, are happening, or will happen in the actual world. By reading narrative, we escape the anxiety that attacks us when we try to say something true about the world. This is the consoling function of narrative -- the reason people tell stories, and have told stories from the beginning of time.	escape reading fiction interpretation real-world narrative escapism storytelling	Umberto Eco
c92a652	Show not what has been done, but what can be. How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths.	labyrinths possibilities	Umberto Eco
15793d5	True learning must not be content with ideas, which are, in fact, signs, but must discover things in their individual truth.		Umberto Eco
bb8da7f	Each of us is sometimes a cretin, a fool, a moron, or a lunatic. A normal person is just a reasonable mix of these components, these four ideal types.		Umberto Eco
9113639	It is necessary to meditate early, and often, on the art of dying to succeed later in doing it properly just once.		Umberto Eco
afc54d6	Yesterday's rose endures in its name, we hold empty names.		Umberto Eco
61c0f35	A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. so the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion.	fragile librarian protection	Umberto Eco
35c5537	The order that our mind imagines is like a net, or like a ladder, built to attain something. But afterward you must throw the ladder away, because you discover that, even if it was useful, it was meaningless.	utility wittgenstein order method	Umberto Eco
a966473	All the stories I would like to write persecute me. When I am in my chamber, it seems as if they are all around me, like little devils, and while one tugs at my ear, another tweaks my nose, and each says to me, 'Sir, write me, I am beautiful.	writing on-writing storytelling stories	Umberto Eco
523ce07	A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would have not written a novel, which is a machine for generating interpretations.		Umberto Eco
12a221a	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.		Umberto Eco
a7b6c7e	How peaceful life would be without Love, Adso. How Safe. How Tranquil. And how Dull.	peace	Umberto Eco
81a2528	After so many years even the fire of passion dies, and with it what was believed the light of the truth. Who of us is able to say now whether Hector or Achilles was right, Agamemnon or Priam, when they fought over the beauty of a woman who is now dust and ashes?	war passion past truth troy passage-of-time justification iliad mythology right homer	Umberto Eco
0509813	Nothing gives a fearful man more courage than another's fear.	murder fear friendship	Umberto Eco
c042382	When the writer (or the artist in general) says he has worked without giving any thought to the rules of the process, he simply means he was working without realizing he knew the rules.	writing	Umberto Eco
f577bbd	Rem tene, verba sequentur: grasp the subject, and the words will follow. This, I believe, is the opposite of what happens with poetry, which is more a case of verba tene, res sequenter: grasp the words, and the subject will follow.	writing	Umberto Eco
bb82f96	The older I grow and the more I abandon myself to God's will, the less I value intelligence that wants to know and will that wants to do; and as the only element of salvation I recognize faith, which can wait patiently, without asking too many questions.		Umberto Eco
cbc310d	How clear everything becomes when you look from the darkness of a dungeon.		Umberto Eco
1d9e3fa	How beautiful was the spectacle of nature not yet touched by the often perverse wisdom of man!		Umberto Eco
bef153f	I believe all sin, love, glory are this: when you slide down the knotted sheets, escaping from Gestapo headquarters, and she hugs you, there, suspended, and she whispers that she's always dreamed of you. The rest is just sex, copulation, the perpetuation of the vile species.		Umberto Eco
0cce7f9	Losers, like autodidacts, always know much more than winners. If you want to win, you need to know just one thing and not to waste your time on anything else: the pleasures of erudition are reserved for losers. The more a person knows, the more things have gone wrong.		Umberto Eco
e3f4b15	Well, Diotallevi and I are planning a reform in higher education. A School of Comparative Irrelevance, where useless or impossibe courses are given. The school's aim is to turn out scholars capable of endlessly increasing the number of unnecessary subjects.	humor nonsense	Umberto Eco

3fb9f7b

Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn't ask ourselves what it says but what it means...

Umberto Eco

68b5b11

To survive, you must tell stories.

Umberto Eco

d007b3e

I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.

wisdom parenting

Umberto Eco

d4bcff3

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.

Umberto Eco

28e4acd

The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.

heroism

Umberto Eco

51045ef

Then why do you want to know?" "Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do, but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do."

understanding learning

Umberto Eco

c333f01

People are never so completely and enthusiastically evil as when they act out of religious conviction.

religion fundamentalism fanaticism evil

Umberto Eco

d73e7f5

What is love? There is nothing in the world, neither man nor Devil nor any thing, that I hold as suspect as love, for it penetrates the soul more than any other thing. Nothing exists that so fills and binds the heart as love does. Therefore, unless you have those weapons that subdue it, the soul plunges through love into an immense abyss.

Umberto Eco

09094a5

Thus I rediscovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told.

storytelling story-telling

Umberto Eco

e799f87

Love is wiser than wisdom.

Umberto Eco

d97beea

There are four kinds of people in this world: cretins, fools, morons, and lunatics...Cretins don't even talk; they sort of slobber and stumble...Fools are in great demand, especially on social occasions. They embarrass everyone but provide material for conversation...Fools don't claim that cats bark, but they talk about cats when everyone else is talking about dogs. They offend all the rules of conversation, and when they really offend, the..

Umberto Eco

6f69117

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.

Umberto Eco

97f9be4

As the man said, for every complex problem there's a simple solution, and it's wrong.

Umberto Eco

2702530

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.

religion prophets

Umberto Eco

3137281

What is life if not the shadow of a fleeting dream?

Umberto Eco

e74984e

We live for books. A sweet mission in this world dominated by disorder and decay.

Umberto Eco

13e9809

Any fact becomes important when it's connected to another.

fiction fact connection

Umberto Eco

83d7956

Entering a novel is like going on a climb in the mountains: you have to learn the rhythm of respiration, acquire the pace; otherwise you stop right away.

Umberto Eco

4fdd6a5

When you are on the dancefloor, there is nothing to do but dance.

Umberto Eco

52b59fe

Monsters exist because they are part of the divine plan, and in the horrible features of those same monsters the power of the creator is revealed.

Umberto Eco

ac3f020

We were clever enough to turn a laundry list into poetry.

Umberto Eco

4be7478

A dream is a scripture, and many scriptures are nothing but dreams.

Umberto Eco

ac95af4

To read fiction means to play a game by which we give sense to the immensity of things that happened, are happening, or will happen in the actual world. By reading narrative, we escape the anxiety that attacks us when we try to say something true about the world. This is the consoling function of narrative -- the reason people tell stories, and have told stories from the beginning of time.

escape reading fiction interpretation real-world narrative escapism storytelling

Umberto Eco

c92a652

Show not what has been done, but what can be. How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths.

labyrinths possibilities

Umberto Eco

15793d5

True learning must not be content with ideas, which are, in fact, signs, but must discover things in their individual truth.

Umberto Eco

bb8da7f

Each of us is sometimes a cretin, a fool, a moron, or a lunatic. A normal person is just a reasonable mix of these components, these four ideal types.

Umberto Eco

9113639

It is necessary to meditate early, and often, on the art of dying to succeed later in doing it properly just once.

Umberto Eco

afc54d6

Yesterday's rose endures in its name, we hold empty names.

Umberto Eco

61c0f35

A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. so the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion.

fragile librarian protection

Umberto Eco

35c5537

The order that our mind imagines is like a net, or like a ladder, built to attain something. But afterward you must throw the ladder away, because you discover that, even if it was useful, it was meaningless.

utility wittgenstein order method

Umberto Eco

a966473

All the stories I would like to write persecute me. When I am in my chamber, it seems as if they are all around me, like little devils, and while one tugs at my ear, another tweaks my nose, and each says to me, 'Sir, write me, I am beautiful.

writing on-writing storytelling stories

Umberto Eco

523ce07

A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would have not written a novel, which is a machine for generating interpretations.

Umberto Eco

12a221a

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.

Umberto Eco

a7b6c7e

How peaceful life would be without Love, Adso. How Safe. How Tranquil. And how Dull.

peace

Umberto Eco

81a2528

After so many years even the fire of passion dies, and with it what was believed the light of the truth. Who of us is able to say now whether Hector or Achilles was right, Agamemnon or Priam, when they fought over the beauty of a woman who is now dust and ashes?

war passion past truth troy passage-of-time justification iliad mythology right homer

Umberto Eco

0509813

Nothing gives a fearful man more courage than another's fear.

murder fear friendship

Umberto Eco

c042382

When the writer (or the artist in general) says he has worked without giving any thought to the rules of the process, he simply means he was working without realizing he knew the rules.

writing

Umberto Eco

f577bbd

Rem tene, verba sequentur: grasp the subject, and the words will follow. This, I believe, is the opposite of what happens with poetry, which is more a case of verba tene, res sequenter: grasp the words, and the subject will follow.

writing

Umberto Eco

bb82f96

The older I grow and the more I abandon myself to God's will, the less I value intelligence that wants to know and will that wants to do; and as the only element of salvation I recognize faith, which can wait patiently, without asking too many questions.

Umberto Eco

cbc310d

How clear everything becomes when you look from the darkness of a dungeon.

Umberto Eco

1d9e3fa

How beautiful was the spectacle of nature not yet touched by the often perverse wisdom of man!

Umberto Eco

bef153f

I believe all sin, love, glory are this: when you slide down the knotted sheets, escaping from Gestapo headquarters, and she hugs you, there, suspended, and she whispers that she's always dreamed of you. The rest is just sex, copulation, the perpetuation of the vile species.

Umberto Eco

0cce7f9

Losers, like autodidacts, always know much more than winners. If you want to win, you need to know just one thing and not to waste your time on anything else: the pleasures of erudition are reserved for losers. The more a person knows, the more things have gone wrong.

Umberto Eco

e3f4b15

Well, Diotallevi and I are planning a reform in higher education. A School of Comparative Irrelevance, where useless or impossibe courses are given. The school's aim is to turn out scholars capable of endlessly increasing the number of unnecessary subjects.

humor nonsense

Umberto Eco