823 Quotes by Umberto Eco

I don’t miss my youth. I’m glad I had one, but I wouldn’t like to start over.

To establish what is true is very difficult. Frequently it is easier to establish what is false. And, passing through the false, it’s possible to understand something about truth.

Not that the incredulous person doesn’t believe in anything. It’s just that he doesn’t believe in everything. Or he believes in one thing at a time. He believes a second thing only if it somehow follows from the first thing. He is nearsighted and methodical, avoiding wide horizons. If two things don’t fit, but you believe both of them, thinking that somewhere, hidden, there must be a third thing that connects them, that’s credulity.

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

As long as you remain in your private vacuum, you can pretend you are in harmony with the One. But the moment you pick up the clay, electronic or otherwise, you become a demiurge, and he who embarks on the creation of worlds is already tainted with corruption and evil.

For the male who dominates and writes, or by writing dominates, the woman has always been portrayed with hostility from the earliest times. Let us not be deceived by angelic descriptions of women. On the contrary, precisely because great literature is dominated by sweet, gentle creatures, the world of satire – which is that of the popular imagination – continually demonizes the woman, from antiquity, through the Middle Ages, and up to modern times.

Writing doesn’t mean necessarily putting words on a sheet of paper. You can write a chapter while walking or eating.

Do we really have to talk about professionalism? Everyone here is a professional. A master builder who puts up a wall that hasn’t collapsed is certainly acting professionally, but professionalism ought to be the norm, and we should only be talking about the dodgy builder who puts up a wall that doesn’t collapse... This insistence on professionalism, that it is something special, makes it sound as if people are generally lousy workers.

In other words, although I don’t like them, we do need noble-spirited souls.