Umberto Eco Quotes That Will Inspire You to Live Your Best Life

1. After so many years even the fire of passion dies, and with it what was believed the light of the truth. Who of us is able to say now whether Hector or Achilles was right, Agamemnon or Priam, when they fought over the beauty of a woman who is now dust and ashes? The Name of the Rose

2. 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. Foucault's Pendulum

3. I did not know then what Brother William was seeking, and to tell the truth, I still do not know today, and I presume he himself did not know, moved as he was solely by the desire for truth, and by the suspicion - which I could see he always harbored - that the truth was not what was appearing to him at any given moment. The Name of the Rose

4. Not bad, not bad at all," Diotallevi said. "To arrive at the truth through the painstaking reconstruction of a false text. Foucault's Pendulum

5. Semiotics is in principle the discipline studying everything which can be used in order to lie. If something cannot be used to tell a lie, conversely it cannot be used to tell the truth: it cannot in fact be used "to tell" at all. A Theory of Semiotics

6. Thus we have on stage two men, each of whom knows nothing of what he believes the other knows, and to deceive each other reciprocally both speak in allusions, each of the two hoping (in vain) that the other holds the key to his puzzle. The Island of the Day Before

7. Under torture you are as if under the dominion of those grasses that produce visions. Everything you have heard told, everything you have read returns to your mind, as if you were being transported, not toward heaven, but toward hell. Under torture you say not only what the inquisitor wants, but also what you imagine might please him, because a bond (this, truly, diabolical) is established between you and him ... These things I know, Ubertino; I also have belonged to those groups of men who believe they can produce the truth with white-hot iron. Well, let me tell you, the white heat of truth comes from another flame. The Name of the Rose

8. What is love? There is nothing in the world, neither man nor Devil nor any thing, that I hold as suspect as love, for it penetrates the soul more than any other thing. Nothing exists that so fills and binds the heart as love does. Therefore, unless you have those weapons that subdue it, the soul plunges through love into an immense abyss. The Name of the Rose

9. A monk should surely love his books with humility, wishing their good and not the glory of his own curiosity; but what the temptation of adultery is for laymen and the yearning for riches is for secular ecclesiastics, the seduction of knowledge is for monks. The Name of the Rose

10. It's hopeless," he went on. "We no longer have the learning of the ancients, the age of giants is past!""We are dwarfs," William admitted, "but dwarfs who stand on the shoulders of those giants, and small though we are, we sometimes manage to see farther on the horizon than they. The Name of the Rose

11. Not bad, not bad at all," Diotallevi said. "To arrive at the truth through the painstaking reconstruction of a false text. Foucault's Pendulum

12. 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. Postscript to the Name of the Rose

13. 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. The Name of the Rose

14. Thus we have on stage two men, each of whom knows nothing of what he believes the other knows, and to deceive each other reciprocally both speak in allusions, each of the two hoping (in vain) that the other holds the key to his puzzle. The Island of the Day Before

15. when a man has little time, he must take care to maintain his calm. We must act as if we had eternity before us. The Name of the Rose

16. Έτσι συγκινήθηκα από τις σελίδες του Ιμπν Χαζμ, που ορίζει τον έρωτα ως μια αντίθαση αρρώστια, που γιατρεύεται μόνη της, κι ο άρρωστος δεν θέλει να θεραπευτεί κι ο ασθενής δεν θέλει να αναρρώνει." "..η αγάπη μπαίνει από τα μάτια... όποιος πάσχει απ' αυτό το κακό επιδειχνύει μια υπερβολική επιθυμία, ενώ ταυτόχρονα επιθυμεί να μείνει παράμερα κι αποζητά τη μοναξιά, ενώ τα υπόλοιπα συμπτώματα που εμφανίζονται είναι η βίαιη ανησυχία και η σύγχυση που τον κάνει να χάνει τα λόγια του... The Name of the Rose

17. Τι είναι η αγάπη; Δεν υπάρχει τίποτα στον κόσμο, ούτε άνθρωπος ούτε διάβολος ούτε πράγμα, που να το θεωρώ τόσο ύποπτο σαν τον έρωτα, που διαποτίζει την ψυχή περισσότερο απ' οτιδήποτε άλλο. Δεν υπάρχει τίποτα που να κατακτά και να δεσμεύει την καρδιά όπως ο έρωτας. Έτσι όταν δεν υπάρχουν τα όπλα να τον πολεμήσουν, ο έρωτας ωθεί την ψυχή σ' έναν απύθμενο αφανισμό. Το όνομα του ρόδου: Τόμος 1