Umberto Eco Quotes

171 Sourced Quotes

For such is the fate of parody: it must never fear exaggerating. If it strikes home, it will only prefigure something that others will then do without a smile—and without a blush—in steadfast virile seriousness.

Umberto Eco
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
Once upon a time there were mass media, and they were wicked, of course, and there was a guilty party. Then there were the virtuous voices that accused the criminals. And Art (ah, what luck!) offered alternatives, for those who were not prisoners to the mass media.

Umberto Eco
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.

Umberto Eco
I seal that which was not to be said in the tomb that I become.

Umberto Eco
The author should die once he has finished writing. So as not to trouble the path of the text.

Umberto Eco
It takes a little time, but the pleasures of cooking begin before the pleasures of the palate, and preparing means anticipating...

Umberto Eco
"That man is … odd," I dared say to William.
"He is, or has been, in many ways a great man. But for this very reason he is odd. It is only petty men who seem normal."

Umberto Eco
The emperor of the Latins — who hasn't been a Latin himself since the days of Charlemagne — is the successor of the Roman emperors — the ones of Rome, I mean, not those of Constantinople. But to make sure he's emperor, he has to be crowned by the pope, because the law of Christ has swept away the false law, the law of liars. To be crowned by the pope, the emperor also has to be recognized by the cities of Italy, and each of them kind of goes his own way, so he has to be crowned king of Italy — provided, naturally, that the Teutonic princes have elected him. Is that clear?

Umberto Eco
The only truths that are useful are instruments to be thrown away.

Umberto Eco
I have never doubted the truth of signs, Adso; they are the only things man has with which to orient himself in the world.

Umberto Eco
Authors frequently say things they are unaware of; only after they have gotten the reactions of their readers do they discover what they have said

Umberto Eco
Not bad, not bad at all," Diotallevi said. "To arrive at the truth through the painstaking reconstruction of a false text.

Umberto Eco
"Then we are living in a place abandoned by God," I said, disheartened. "Have you found any places where God would have felt at home?" William asked me, looking down from his great height.

Umberto Eco
For, I must tell you, in this world where today all lose their minds over many & wondrous Machines — some of which, alas, you can see also in this Siege — I construct Aristotelian Machines, that allow anyone to see with Words...

Umberto Eco
The comic is the perception of the opposite; humor is the feeling of it.

Umberto Eco
In short, Roberto privately concluded, if you would avoid wars, never make treaties of peace.

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

Umberto Eco
Reflecting on these complex relationships between reader and story, fiction and life, can constitute a form of therapy against the sleep of reason, which generates monsters.

Umberto Eco
I was the type who looked at discussions of What Is Truth only with a view toward correcting the manuscript. If you were to quote "I am that I am," for example, I thought that the fundamental problem was where to put the comma, inside the quotation marks or outside.

Umberto Eco