A secret is powerful when it is empty. People often mention the "Masonic secret." What on earth is the Masonic secret? No… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
For many years I have devoted articles and essays to newspapers, from the inside. So criticism of the newspapers was a topic… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
Beauty is, in some way, boring. Even if its concept changes through the ages... a beautiful object must always follow certain rules.… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
From lies to forgeries the step is not so long, and I have written technical essays on the logic of forgeries and… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
Not long ago, if you wanted to seize political power in a country you had merely to control the army and the… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“Until then I had thought each book spoke of the things, human or divine, that lie outside books. Now I realized that… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
And so I fell devoutly asleep and slept a long time, because young people seem to need sleep more than the old,… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
History is rich with adventurous men, long on charisma, with a highly developed instinct for their own interests, who have pursued personal… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
We stopped to browse in the cases, and now that William - with his new glasses on his nose - could linger… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
To play the trumpet, you must train your lips for a long time. When I was twelve or thirteen I was a… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
It was awkward, revisiting a world you have never seen before: like coming home, after a long journey, to someone else’s house. — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
A transposable aphorism is a malaise of the urge to be witty, or in other words, a maxim that is untroubled by… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Followers of the occult believe in only what they already know, and in those things that confirm what they have already learned. — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
“…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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
With all of its defects, the global market makes war less likely, even between the USA and China. — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
