823 Quotes by Umberto Eco

Because reasoning about causes and effects is a very difficult thing, and I believe the only judge of that can be God. We are already hard put to establish a relationship between such an obvious effect as a charred tree and the lightning bolt that set fire to it, so to trace sometimes endless chains of causes and effects seems to me as foolish as trying to build a tower that will touch the sky.

If there is something paradoxical, in the sense of curious or bizarre, it is that the word paradox has two fairly different meanings: one which is used in logic and philosophy, and the other in rhetoric.

…a paradox would appear to be a maximum that looks false at first sight and, only after mature reflection, seems to express what the author believes to be true and, because of the hiatus between the expectations of popular opinion and its provocative form, also appears to be witty

A paradox is a genuine reversal of the commonly accepted point of view, one that presents an unacceptable world, thereby eliciting resistance and rejection, and yet, if we make an effort to understand it, it is one that leads to knowledge; eventually it seems to be witty because it has to be admitted that it is true.

This is the illusion of heresy. The faith a movement proclaims doesn't count: what counts is the hope it offers. Scratch the heresy and you will find the leper. Every battle against heresy wants only to keep the leper as he is.

The simple cannot choose their personal heresy, Adso; they cling to the man preaching in their land, who passes through their village or stops in their square. This is what their enemies exploit.

Çfarë është dashuria? Nuk ka asgjë në botë qoftë humane apo djallëzore apo çfarëdoqoftë që mund të deportojë në shpirtin e njeriut si dashuria

The understanding of signs is not a mere matter of recognition (of a stable equivalence); it is amatter of interpretation.

Terrorism is not the enemy of the great systems; on the contrary, it is their natural counterweight, accepted, programmed.