Art Quotes by Umberto Eco

13 Art quotes by Umberto Eco

Eco’s take on art is a lesson in symbols and meaning. Though only 13 entries, each line offers a dense, intellectual nudge toward understanding the hidden layers of visual culture.

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“When nature fails, we turn to art.”

Umberto Eco

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Translation is the art of failure.

Umberto Eco

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“Art is a serious matter”

umberto eco

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When the writer (or the artist in general) says he has worked without giving any thought to the rules of the process,…

Umberto Eco

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The Art of the Romance, though warning us that it is providing fictions, opens a door into the Palace of Absurdity, and…

Umberto Eco

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It is necessary to meditate early, and often, on the art of dying to succeed later in doing it properly just once.

Umberto Eco

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“Machines, he said, are an effect of art, which is nature’s ape, and they reproduce not its forms but the operation itself.”

Umberto Eco

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The art of splitting hairs four ways. This is the department of useless techniques. Mechanical Avunculogratulation, for example, is how to build…

Umberto Eco

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Once upon a time there were mass media, and they were wicked, of course, and there was a guilty party. Then there…

Umberto Eco

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“Ok now--I don't read "all the time." Remember, that these ratings are over quite a while. I'll try to put in some…

Umberto Eco

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“Will we be happier afterwards? Or will be have lost the freshness of those who are privileged to experience art as real…

Umberto Eco

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“Once upon a time there were mass media, and they were wicked, of course, and there was a guilty party. Then there…

Umberto Eco

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“We'll have to see," Belbo said. He rummaged in his drawer and took out some sheets of paper. "Potio-section..." He looked at…

Umberto Eco

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More by Umberto Eco

I think that at a certain age, say fifteen or sixteen, poetry is like masturbation. But later in life good poets burn their early…

Umberto Eco

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Followers of the occult believe in only what they already know, and in those things that confirm what they have already learned.

Umberto Eco

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“This has nothing to do with realism (even if it explains also realism). A completely real world can be constructed, in which asses fly…

Umberto Eco

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“…there’s nothing in this world that demands more caution than the truth. To tell the truth is like leeching one’s own heart...”

Umberto Eco

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The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. You cannot make a spoon that is…

Umberto Eco

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“No algorithm exists for the metaphor, nor can a metaphor be produced by means of a computer’s precise instructions, no matter what the volume…

Umberto Eco

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With all of its defects, the global market makes war less likely, even between the USA and China.

Umberto Eco

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The Fundamental Principle that governs - or ought to govern -human affairs if we wish to avoid misunderstandings, conflicts, or pointless utopias, is negotiation.

Umberto Eco

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Any fact becomes important when it's connected to another.

Umberto Eco

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American coffee can be a pale solution served at a temperature of 100 degrees centigrade in plastic thermos cups, usually obligatory in railroad stations…

Umberto Eco

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Listening doesn't mean trying to understand. Anything, however trifling, may be of use one day. What matters is to know something that others don't…

Umberto Eco

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They say that a cat, if it falls from a window and hits its nose, can lose its sense of smell and then, because…

Umberto Eco

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There are magic moments, involving great physical fatigue and intense motor excitement, that produce visions of people known in the past. As I learned…

Umberto Eco