Umberto Eco Quotes

But now 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

Truth, Made, Mad

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

Truth, Made, Mad

But Italy is not an intellectual country. On the subway in Tokyo everybody reads. In Italy, they don't. Don't evaluate Italy from the fact that it produced Raphael and Michelangelo.
Umberto Eco

Country, Fact, Everybody

In the United States there's a Puritan ethic and a mythology of success. He who is successful is good. In Latin countries, in Catholic countries, a successful person is a sinner.
Umberto Eco

Success, Good, Successful

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.
Umberto Eco

Life, Nature, Time

Perhaps the mission of those who love mankind is to make people laugh at the truth, to make truth laugh, because the only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for the truth.
Umberto Eco

Love, Truth, Learning

Fear prophets 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.
Umberto Eco

Truth, Fear, Die

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

Dreams, Real, Hero

Translation is the art of failure.
Umberto Eco

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.
Umberto Eco

God, Men, Nothing

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

Dreams, Nothing, Dream

People are tired of simple things. They want to be challenged.
Umberto Eco

Tired, Simple, Challenged

Better reality than a dream: if something is real, then it's real and you're not to blame.
Umberto Eco

Reality, Real, Blame

We have a limit, a very discouraging, humiliating limit: death.
Umberto Eco

Creativity can only be anarchic, capitalist, Darwinian.
Umberto Eco

Creativity, Capitalist, Darwinian

Every European goes on the streets and sees medieval churches. Not if you live in Indianapolis. The most exciting letters I received were from people in places like that.
Umberto Eco

Live, Goes, Exciting

From lies to forgeries the step is not so long, and I have written technical essays on the logic of forgeries and on the influence of forgeries on history.
Umberto Eco

History, Long, Lies

I don't see the point of having 80 million people online if all they are doing in the end is talking to ghosts in the suburbs.
Umberto Eco

End, Point, Talking

I think every professor and writer is in some way an exhibitionist because his or her normal activity is a theatrical one. When you give a lesson the situation is the same as writing a book. You have to capture the attention, the complicity of your audience.
Umberto Eco

Book, Writing, Give

I would define the poetic effect as the capacity that a text displays for continuing to generate different readings, without ever being completely consumed.
Umberto Eco

Different, Effect, Capacity

It is a myth of publishers that people want to read easy things.
Umberto Eco

Easy, Read, Myth

The good of a book lies in its being read. A book is made up of signs that speak of other signs, which in their turn speak of things. Without an eye to read them, a book contains signs that produce no concepts; therefore it is dumb.
Umberto Eco

Good, Book, Made

After years of practice, I can walk into a bookstore and understand its layout in a few seconds. I can glance at the spine of a book and make a good guess at its content from a number of signs.
Umberto Eco

Good, Book, Understand

As a scholar I am interested in the philosophy of language, semiotics, call it what you want, and one of the main features of the human language is the possibility of lying.
Umberto Eco

Human, Philosophy, Language

As an adolescent I wrote comic books, because I read lots of them, and fantasy novels set in Malaysia and Central Africa.
Umberto Eco

Read, Books, Africa

Share with your Friends

Everyone likes a good quote - don't forget to share.

Biography

Nationality: Italian

Born: January 5, 1932

Links

Find on Amazon: Umberto Eco

Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics

Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

Related Authors

Ernest Hemingway
Paulo Coelho
Aldous Huxley
Richard Bach
Charles Dickens
Leo Tolstoy
Chuck Palahniuk
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
More

Get Social with BrainyQuote

BrainyQuote Desktop

BrainyQuote Mobile

Site

Quote of the Day

Social

BQ on Pinterest

Syndication

Funny Quote Feed

Love Quote Feed

Nature Quote Feed

About Us