Your masters at Oxford have taught you to idolize reason, drying up the prophetic capacities of your heart! Umberto Eco More Quotes by Umberto Eco More Quotes From Umberto Eco For centuries, as pope and emperor tore each other apart in their quarrels over power, the excluded went on living on the fringe, like lepers, of whom true lepers are only the illustration ordained by God to make us understand this wondrous parable, so that in saying 'lepers' we would understand 'outcast, poor, simple, excluded, uprooted from the countryside, humiliated in the cities.' But we did not understand; the mystery of leprosy has continued to haunt us because we have not recognized the nature of the sign. Umberto Eco illustration cities simple At most, recognizing that our history was inspired by many tales we now recognize as false should make us alert, ready to call to constantly into question the very tale we believe true, because the criterion of the wisdom of the community is based on constant awareness of the fallibility of our learning. Umberto Eco inspired community believe 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 reactions reader said For Mallarmé naming an object meant suppressing three-quarters of its poetic pleasure (which consists in the joy of guessing bit by bit - "le suggérer, voilà le rêve!"). Umberto Eco three poetry joy But laughter is weakness, corruption, the foolishness of our flesh. Umberto Eco laughter weakness flesh I think a book should be judged 10 years later, after reading and re-reading it. Umberto Eco reading book thinking Libraries can take the place of God. Umberto Eco library To escape the power of the unknown, to prove to yourself that you don't believe in it, you accept its spells. Like an avowed atheist who sees the Devil at night, you reason: He certainly doesn't exist; this is therefore an illusion, perhaps a result of indigestion. But the Devil is sure that he exists, and believes in his upside-down theology. What, then, will frighten him? You make the sign of the cross, and he vanishes in a puff of brimstone. Umberto Eco atheist believe book Contemporary societies have lost the sense of the feast but have kept the obscure drive for it. Umberto Eco obscure cooking food And what would we be, we sinful creatures, without fear, perhaps the most foresighted, the most loving of the divine gifts? Umberto Eco creatures divine I was in a maze. No matter which way I turned, it was the wrong way. Umberto Eco mazes matter way A writer writes for writers, a non-writer writes for his next-door neighbor or for the manager of the local bank branch, and he fears (often mistakenly) that they would not understand or, in any case, would not forgive his boldness. Umberto Eco forgiving writing doors 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 escaping believe sex They [the Templars] had read Avicenna, and they were not ignorant, like the Europeans. How could you live alongside a tolerant, mystical, libertine culture for two centuries without succumbing to its allure, particularly when you compared it to Western culture, which was crude, vulgar, barbaric, and Germanic? Umberto Eco western-culture ignorant two It comes down to a question of attention: it's difficult to use the Net distractedly, unlike the television or the radio. Umberto Eco use attention television If somebody writes a book and doesn't care for the survival of that book, he's an imbecile. Umberto Eco survival writing book There must be a connection between the lust for power and impotentia coeundi. I liked Marx, I was sure that he and his Jenny had made love merrily. You can feel it in the easy pace of his prose and in his humor. On the other hand, I remember remarking one day in the corridors of the university that if you screwed Krupskaya all the time, you'd end up writing a lousy book like Materialism and Empiriocriticism. Umberto Eco writing book hands Every thing thinks, but according to its complexity. If this is so, then stones also think...and this stone thinks only I stone, I stone, I stone. But perhaps it cannot even say I. It thinks: Stone, stone, stone... God enjoys being All, as this stone enjoys being almost nothing, but since it knows no other way of being, it is pleased with its own way, eternally satisfied with itself. Umberto Eco stones way thinking All the religious wars that have caused blood to be shed for centuries arise from passionate feelings and facile counter-positions, such as Us and Them, good and bad, white and black. Umberto Eco religious war blood I was a fervent Catholic, and I belonged to the national organizations, even becoming one of the national leaders, until the age of 21, 22. Umberto Eco becoming-one organization leader
