Umberto Eco
live book
“We live for books.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
book believe inquiry meaning
“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 (1932-2016)
survive story
“To survive, you must tell stories.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
become father teach wisdom scrap
“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
believe god nothing everything
“When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
love smell book ink morning
“I love the smell of book ink in the morning.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
know want can do could should not
“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 (1932-2016)
rediscover writer book speak story tell
“Thus I rediscovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
poetry bad good publish burn
“All poets write bad poetry. Bad poets publish them, good poets burn them.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
complex problem simple solution wrong
“As the man said, for every complex problem there’s a simple solution, and it’s wrong.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
fact important connected
“Any fact becomes important when it's connected to another.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
learning idea fact sign individual truth
“True learning must not be content with ideas, which are, in fact, signs, but must discover things in their individual truth.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
cretin fool moron lunatic mix types
“Each of us is sometimes a cretin, a fool, a moron, or a lunatic. A normal person is just a reasonable mix of these components, these four ideal types.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
subject word poetry opposite
“Rem tene, verba sequentur: grasp the subject, and the words will follow. This, I believe, is the opposite of what happens with poetry, which is more a case of verba tene, res sequenter: grasp the words, and the subject will follow.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
clear look darkness dungeon
“How clear everything becomes when you look from the darkness of a dungeon.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
story teach please snare world
“But the purpose of a story is to teach and to please at once, and what it teaches is how to recognize the snares of the world.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
television teach education
“If you want to use television to teach somebody, you must first teach them how to use television.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
beautiful spectacle nature perverse wisdom man
“How beautiful was the spectacle of nature not yet touched by
the often perverse wisdom of man!”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
books believe inquiry
“Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to enquiry
(William of Baskerville)”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016), The Name of the Rose
national identity hatred different
“National identity is the last bastion of the dispossessed. But the meaning of identity is now based on hatred, on hatred for those who are not the same.”
― Umberto Eco (1932-2016)