We have a limit, a very discouraging, humiliating limit: death. That's why we like all the things that we assume have no limits and, therefore, no end. It's a way of escaping thoughts about death. We like lists because we don't want to die. Umberto Eco More Quotes by Umberto Eco More Quotes From Umberto Eco If western culture is shown to be rich it is because, even before the Enlightenment, it has tried to "dissolve" harmful simplifications through inquiry and the critical mind. Umberto Eco western-culture enlightenment mind The art of splitting hairs four ways. This is the department of useless techniques. Mechanical Avunculogratulation, for example, is how to build machines for greeting uncles. We're not sure, though, if Pylocatabasis belongs, since it's the art of being saved by a hair. Somehow that doesn't seem completely useless. Umberto Eco uncles hair art "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 height home life A novel is a machine for generating interpretations. Umberto Eco interpretation machines statistics The truth is a young maiden as modest as she is beautiful, and therefore she is always seen cloaked. Umberto Eco modesty truth-is beautiful Terrorism [is] a biological consequence of the multinationals, just as a day of fever is the reasonable price of an effective vaccine . . . The conflict is between great powers, not between demons and heroes. Unhappily, therefore, is the nation that finds the "heroes" underfoot, especially if they still think in religious terms and involve the population in their bloody ascent to an uninhabited paradise. Umberto Eco religious hero thinking But why doesn't the Gospel ever say that Christ laughed?" I asked, for no good reason. "Is Jorge right?" "Legions of scholars have wondered whether Christ laughed. The question doesn't interest me much. I believe he never laughed, because, omniscient as the son of God had to be, he knew how we Christians would behave. . . . Umberto Eco laughter christian believe Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. Umberto Eco inquiry made book They say that a cat, if it falls from a window and Umberto Eco smell cat fall Nothing can shake my belief that this world is the fruit of a dark god whose shadow I extend. Umberto Eco shadow dark world My grandfather had a particularly important influence on my life, even though I didn't visit him often, since he lived about three miles out of town and he died when I was six. He was remarkably curious about the world, and he read lots of books. Umberto Eco important grandfather book It is clear that when you write a story that takes place in the past, you try to show what really happened in those times. But you are always moved by the suspicion that you are also showing something about our contemporary world. Umberto Eco writing trying past I am an old consumer of papers. I cannot avoid reading my newspapers every morning. Umberto Eco reading paper morning Once you reach your fifties, you have to stop being interested in the present and write only on Elizabethan poets. Umberto Eco elizabethan poet writing A great problem of the internet is how to filter information, how to discard what is not relevant or what is silly and to keep only the important information. Umberto Eco filters important silly Ugliness is more inventive than beauty. Beauty always follows certain camps. I think it's more amusing - ugliness - than beauty. Umberto Eco amusing certain thinking Sometimes my characters are not myself. Umberto Eco sometimes character Conspiracies and all the theories of conspiracy are a part of the canon of fakes. And I'm involved, in all of my writings, the theoretical ones as well as the novels, with the production of fakes. Umberto Eco conspiracy fake writing One of the problems I have always discussed is the refusal to distinguish between comment and fact. The newspaper wraps every fact into a comment. It is impossible to give mere fact without establishing point of view. Umberto Eco views giving facts Being a professional philosopher is, I would say, feeling natural to think about small and great problems. It is the only pleasure. Umberto Eco philosopher feelings thinking
