Thus we have on stage two men, each of whom knows nothing of what he believes the other knows, and to deceive each other reciprocally both speak in allusions, each of the two hoping (in vain) that the other holds the key to his puzzle. Umberto Eco More Quotes by Umberto Eco More Quotes From Umberto Eco Every great thinker is someone else's moron. Umberto Eco insult moron thinker The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. You cannot make a spoon that is better than a spoon... The book has been thoroughly tested, and it's very hard to see how it could be improved on for its current purposes. Umberto Eco hammers purpose book 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 trust mean book 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 elements asking waiting We are always remaking history. Our memory is always an interpretive reconstruction of the past, so is perspective. Umberto Eco perspective memories past 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. Umberto Eco intelligence knowing inspirational Love is wiser than wisdom. Umberto Eco wiser love-is The thought that all experience will be lost at the moment of my death makes me feel pain and fear... What a waste, decades spent building up experience, only to throw it all away... We remedy this sadness by working. For example, by writing, painting, or building cities. Umberto Eco sadness pain writing We live for books. Umberto Eco book My generation knew pretty well what happened 50 years before our birth. Now I follow all the quiz programs because they are a paramount example of the span of memory of the young generation - they are able to remember everything that happened in their life but not before. Umberto Eco remembers-everything young-generation memories How does a person feel when looking at the sky? He thinks that he doesn't have enough tongues to describe what he sees. Nevertheless, people have never stopping describing the sky, simply listing what they see. Umberto Eco sky people thinking You can be obsessed by remorse all your life, not because you chose the wrong thing- you can always repent, atone : but because you never had the chance to prove to yourself that you would have chosen the right thing. Umberto Eco language chance book Beauty is, in some way, boring. Even if its concept changes through the ages... a beautiful object must always follow certain rules. A beautiful nose shouldn't be longer than that or shorter than that, on the contrary, an ugly nose can be as long as the one of Pinocchio, or as big as the trunk of an elephant, or like the beak of an eagle, and so ugliness is unpredictable, and offers an infinite range of possibility. Beauty is finite, ugliness is infinite like God. Umberto Eco eagles elephants beautiful I don't miss my youth. I'm glad I had one, but I wouldn't like to start over. Umberto Eco starting-over youth missing True learning must not be content with ideas, which are, in fact, signs, but must discover things in their individual truth. Umberto Eco individual facts ideas We live for books. A sweet mission in this world dominated by disorder and decay. Umberto Eco decay sweet book 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 artist writing mean To read a paper book is another experience: you can do it on a ship, on the branch of a tree, on your bed, even if there is a blackout. Umberto Eco paper tree book The Internet gives us everything and forces us to filter it not by the workings of culture, but with our own brains. This risks creating six billion separate encyclopedias, which would prevent any common understanding whatsoever. Umberto Eco creating understanding giving Libraries have always been humanities' way of preserving its collective wisdom Umberto Eco library humanity wise
