The 60 best phrases of Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco was an Italian writer and philosopher who was born in the Piedmont region in 1932.

Some of his literary works, such as The Name of the Rose or The Island of the Day Before, had a great initial acceptance before him. general public and with the passage of time, they managed to reveal this writer as one of the best novelists of his generation.

If you are interested in knowing more about him and what were some of his most interesting personal ideas, this article will undoubtedly be of great interest to you. In it we will show you a selection with the best phrases of Umberto Eco.

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Umberto Eco's most memorable phrases

If you are a lover of the novels of this famous writer, you will surely enjoy this selection of phrases by Umberto Eco.

1. A thesis is like a game of chess, it has a certain number of moves, but from the beginning one must be able to predict the movements to be made in order to checkmate the adversary.

Developing a thesis was always for Umberto Eco a great exercise in imagination, a really exciting individual project that according to his particular point of view as people we should all face at least once in our lives.

2. We know very well how to destroy a city and how to transport information cheaply, but we still do not have precise ideas on how to reconcile the collective well-being, the future of the young, the overpopulation of the world and the prolongation of the life.

Are we really as developed as we think? There are many unknowns that even as a society we have not answered and many of them are also the most important that humanity has always faced.

3. Doing a thesis means having fun and the thesis is like the pig, everything has a profit in it.

It is a thesis is a very good opportunity to investigate in depth about a certain topic, a possibly unique moment of our life that if we know how to appreciate it can be really edifying for U.S.

4. Life is bearable, just settle.

We can be very happy if we decide to settle for little, because in reality it is often the little pleasures that can make us the happiest.

5. Doesn't affirming God's absolute omnipotence and his absolute availability with respect to your own options amount to proving that God does not exist?

For much of his life, Umberto Eco considered himself an atheist, the lack of evidence about the existence of God was seen by him as a clear reference to the non-existence of him.

6. A holy war is still a war.

All wars were always totally unnecessary for him, no matter what motive might have motivated them.

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7. Social media gives legions of idiots who used to speak only at the bar after a glass of wine the right to speak, without harming the community. They were then quickly silenced, but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It is the invasion of the morons.

Social networks are capable of transmitting a large amount of false information at a time, we must Be very careful when classifying news that comes from this type of information sources as true.

8. It is not the news that makes the newspaper but the newspaper that makes the news.

Media manipulation has always been thereThat is why we must choose very carefully which sources of information we go to.

9. It is a consumerism that does not tend to possess objects of desire with which to be content, but immediately makes them obsolete, and the individual passes from one consumption to another in a kind of aimless bulimia (the new mobile phone offers us very few new features compared to the old one, but the old one has to go to the scrapyard to participate in this orgy of the wish).

Unbridled consumerism is that modern society has acquired as a way of life was always something that this writer did not understand. As human beings we are perfectly capable of living without the vast majority of junk that we all have today.

10. The conjecture space is a rhizomatic space.

His way of narrating and his extensive vocabulary was always something that undoubtedly characterized this writer. If you would like to read some interesting work of his, perhaps you should start with The Name of the Rose or The Island of the Day Before, two great literary works that will certainly not disappoint you.

11. He was liked by Neapolitans and Sicilians, they too mestizos, not by mistake of a skinned mother but by the history of generations, born of crosses of disloyal Levantines, sweaty Arabs and degenerate Ostrogoths, who took the worst from each of their hybrid ancestors: from the Saracens, the indolence; of the Swabians, ferocity; of the Greeks, the fruitlessness and the pleasure of getting lost in talks in order to divide a hair into four.

In this sentence Umberto Eco gives us the opportunity to glimpse just a glimpse of his vast knowledge about history of Europe, a subject without a doubt very interesting about which we can all learn more by reading some of its works of him.

12. There is more traffic in Avignon than in Florence!

This writer was always very aware of the world around him, something that we can see clearly reflected in this brief and revealing quote.

13. The machinery that makes it possible to produce an infinite text with a finite number of elements has existed for millennia: it is the alphabet.

The written word is possibly one of the most powerful tools that human beings have never developed, a technological breakthrough thanks to which many of us today can enjoy a truly comfortable standard of living.

14. Because science does not consist only in knowing what should or can be done, but also in knowing what could be done but perhaps should not be done.

As this quote tells us very well, some scientific experiments can lead to more inconveniences What benefits is that why as a society we must decide if it is really worth carrying them out or no.

15. We are our memory. That is, memory is the soul.

It is thanks to our memory that today we are the person we are, if they extracted everything from us our knowledge and experiences would simply become a nutshell completely empty.

16. Knowledge is not like currency, which remains physically intact even through the most infamous exchanges; rather, it resembles a dress of great beauty, which wear and display wear out.

Knowledge is something that does not have to abandon us throughout our lives, once we acquire it, it will inevitably become an indivisible part of our person.

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17. What model reader did I want while he was writing? An accomplice, without a doubt, to enter my game. What I wanted was to become totally medieval and live in the Middle Ages as if it were my time (and vice versa).

Medieval texts always represented a great source of inspiration for him, if it had always been through this writing he would have written texts similar to those made in those times.

18. Heresies are always an expression of the concrete fact that they exist excluded.

We must value the opinion of others if we want them to also value ours, as well It has been said for a long time: whoever is truly free from sin should cast the first stone.

19. Because not all truths are for all ears, nor can all lies be recognized as such by any godly soul.

Depending on our point of view even a blatant lie may not actually be, the perspective is characteristic that gives all of us the possibility of being able live our life in a truly unique and original way.

20. Mauricio comes from Moisés, Isidore from Isaac, Eduardo de Arón, Jaime de Jacob and Alfonso de Adán ...

Names change and society also changes with them, although deep down many of us continue to harbor the same values ​​and principles.

21. Nothing is more damaging to creativity than the fury of inspiration.

Excessive inspiration can lead us to overload an artistic work, which is why although a certain day we feel very inspired we should dedicate the same amount of time to our art as another day any.

22. It goes for the Pentagon and the CIA, but you won't tell me that all the car magazines depend on the secret services of the lurking demoplutojudeocracy.

Some people tend to think that all the media are politicized, something that, as Umberto Eco argues very well in this appointment, does not really have to be that way.

23. Losers, like self-taught people, always have more extensive knowledge than winners. If you want to win you have to know only one thing and not waste time knowing them all; the pleasure of scholarship is reserved for losers. The more you know, the worse things have gone for you.

If we concentrate on a certain sector, it is very likely that we will be the best at it because unfortunately it is a very common, that those people who are interested in many different disciplines tend not to stand out in the exercise of any of the they.

24. Books are respected by using them, not leaving them alone.

The greatest act of respect that can be done to a book is without a doubt reading it, which is why it never has to be too late to start an exciting reading.

25. God is dead, art ceased to exist, history has come to an end, and I don't feel quite right myself.

Society advances relentlessly and As we get older we tend to feel out of the loop, a perhaps somewhat complicated situation that this writer was able to experience first-hand and that many of us will also have to experience throughout our lives.

26. Possession of the photocopy exempts from reading.

It is not because we have read a certain novel that we have to understand it completely, some works literary books must be read more than once to be able to admire each and every one of his nuances.

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27. Today not being on television is a sign of elegance.

Today television is a medium that undoubtedly usually leaves much to be desired, a place where those who are completely related to the leadership of the lobby of the moment shine and comment.

28. The goal of a good definitive introduction is for the reader to be content with it, understand everything, and not read the rest.

As a good professional writer Umberto Eco was only satisfied by offering the best to his readers, that is why until the introductory stage it was for him a very important part of any novel.

29. There are things you see coming, it is not that you fall in love because you fall in love, you fall in love because in that period you had a desperate need to fall in love. In the periods when you feel like falling in love, you should take a good look at where you get: like having drunk a filter, the kind that makes you fall in love with the first one that passes. He could be a platypus.

Human beings go through many stages over time, and it is especially when we reach maturity that we usually realize all the mistakes we have made in the past.

30. One of the first things to do to start working on a thesis is to write the title, introduction, and final table of contents; this is precisely the things that all authors do in the end.

If we want to be able to carry out a great job, we must take great care of our organization, a undoubtedly a very successful idea that this writer always had very present in the course of all his life.

31. The devil is not the prince of matter, the devil is the arrogance of the spirit, faith without a smile, the truth never touched by doubt.

Maybe we all have a bit of the devil within ourselves. It is ourselves with our strengths and weaknesses who, with our actions, decide whether we want to be Angels or Demons throughout our lives.

32. It is necessary to understand the thesis as a unique occasion to do some exercises that will serve us while we live.

Having to do a doctoral thesis is a truly unique opportunity to be able to investigate in depth about a topic specifically, a very specific situation that sometimes does not recur to some people in their entire lives.

33. The human soul is the true copula of the world because, on the one hand, it is directed towards the divine and, on the other, it enters the body and dominates nature.

The soul is a topic much commented on by all the great philosophers of history and in this particular case, Alberto Eco was no exception to the norm.

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34. Also, if you work well, no topic is truly stupid: by working well you can draw useful conclusions even from a seemingly remote or peripheral topic.

On certain occasions, it is by talking about the most absurd topics that the most absurd conclusions can be drawn from. revealing, that is why any topic can be appropriate for a conversation as long as we dialogue with the indicated person.

35. I asked him what the name of the cat was and he replied that cats are not called because they are not Christians like dogs.

Something that many people do not know is that Umberto Eco was for a good part of his life a complete atheist, for him religion it was simply an abstract idea that some human beings decide to adopt with the idea of ​​being able to focus their feeling of hope.

36. Nothing consoles the novelist more than discovering readings that had not occurred to him and that the readers suggest.

This famous writer was also an avid reader throughout his life.Certainly a very positive activity that, as we can imagine, has always been one of his greatest personal passions for him.

37. It is useless, we no longer have the wisdom of the ancients, the age of the giants is over! "We are dwarves," Guillermo admitted, "but dwarves on the shoulders of those giants and, although small, sometimes we can see beyond their horizon."

Umberto Eco was always very aware of the great debt that today's society owns to the ancient world, because it is undoubtedly thanks to the wisdom of the thinkers and philosophers of the past that today many of us can enjoy a very comfortable.

38. The narrator should not provide interpretations of his work, otherwise, why would he have written a novel, which is a machine to generate interpretations?

A novel is an artistic work that can be understood from many different points of view, which is why all authors should always allow the public to draw their own conclusions.

39. Every philosophical concept, taken in its most generic sense, explains anything.

The philosophy It is a really incredible discipline, thanks to it, human beings have been able to explain in the past some concepts that until now had no credible explanation.

40. Objects are semantically worn out before their materiality.

For this writer philosophy was always a totally indispensable part of his lifeIt is for this reason that with the passage of time he never stopped asking himself a large number of existential questions.

41. Aspiring to something you will never have, is this the acuity of the most generous of desires?

As human beings we all tend to have dreams of greatness at some point in our lives, a series of objectives that with the passage of time we discover that they have always been totally unattainable for the vast majority of us.

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42. Television appears to us as something akin to nuclear energy. Both can only be channeled on the basis of clear cultural and moral decisions.

Television can be a very powerful tool, thanks to it many governments in all the colors that over time have managed to gain the power of a certain nation.

43. It takes an enemy to give the people hope.

A common enemy can indeed be a great link, a way of thinking that is well known and used by a large number of political scientists.

44. There are books that are for the public, and books that make their own public.

Some books are so good that with the passage of time it manages to create a legion of admirers, although as we can imagine there are very few literary works that manage to achieve such a feat.

45. National identity is the last resort for the disinherited.

As we can see, Umberto Eco was not a supporter of nationalisms, for him the life of a person was always far above flags and ideologies.

46. The world is full of precious books that nobody reads.

The fact that a book is very well written does not ensure its success in sales. In most cases, marketing is responsible for ensuring that a book can be well received by the public.

47. Because beauty depends on three things: first, on integrity or perfection, and that is why we consider incompleteness ugly; then, of the correct proportion, that is, of the consonance; finally, of clarity and light.

Perhaps we should begin to appreciate that a work can be perfect even if it is unfinished, because in this way said work captures a certain moment in the artist's life.

48. To conceal is to extend a veil composed of honest darkness, from which the false is not formed, but rather a certain rest is given to the true.

Where a lie ends or begins is something very relative, a perhaps somewhat abstract idea for some of us that we can see reflected in a simple way in this short quote.

49. The desperate loneliness of parallel lives that never meet.

The fact of finding our best friend or our emotional partner is something that we do not do every day, perhaps As a society, we should begin to celebrate more the day we finally met that person who today so much matters.

50. Books are those kinds of instruments that, once invented, could not be improved, simply because they are good. Like the hammer, knife, spoon or scissors.

The book is one of the most powerful tools that human beings have ever made, because of course, without him the current society in which we all live simply could never have developed.

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51. The author should die after having written his work. To pave the way for text.

It is true that post mortem works tend to have a much better acceptance among the public, a situation perhaps somewhat ironic that this writer never understood.

52. The end of terrorism is not only to kill blindly, but to launch a message to destabilize the enemy.

As Umberto Eco well comments in this quote, terrorist attacks usually have two main objectives: The first is to cause the highest possible number of casualties on the enemy and the second is to destabilize your society with the intention that it may collapse.

53. He is a… strange man. He is, or has been, in many ways, a great man. But that is precisely why it is strange. Only small men seem normal.

Greatness always brings with it a large dose of originality, which is why many successful men tend to feel very different from all those around them.

54. I adore cats. They are one of the few creatures that cannot be exploited by their owners.

Felines are proud animals by nature and they are also very difficult to handle, really very interesting characteristics that Umberto Eco always knew how to admire and value from them.

55. All ideals and no ideas.

Human beings are only capable of acquiring a certain ideal after a long process of meditation and inner development, trying Replicating certain ideals that third parties sometimes claim to possess will always be something that ends up causing us more harm than Benefits.

56. And when you live cultivating impossible hopes, you are already a loser. And when you realize it, you sink.

Eventually we all discover that many of our childhood dreams may be totally unattainable for us. us, a very hard moment in the life of any person that Umberto Eco decided to immortalize with this quote so poetics.

57. Poop is the most personal and reserved thing we have. The rest can be known to everyone, the expression on your face, your look, your gestures. Human beings love the perfume of their own excrement but not that of others. Deep down, they are part of our body.

Sometimes we can be narcissistic even in the most unsuspected ways.

58. The faith that a certain movement offers does not matter, but the hope it proposes.

Religion has always been an inexhaustible source of hope, something we can all hold on to when we see darkness closing in on us.

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59. Every aesthetic image is surpassed by the possible images that it arouses, that it opens up. However, no madness could manifest itself, because the experience takes place on and in the object.

The point of view is something very subjective and only if we have a clear vision of reality, we can be fully aware of the correct meaning of a certain artistic work.

60. Creativity means knowing who we are. It is jazz without music, it is a flow of energy. To be creative is to be brave.

Being creative individuals is certainly a great symptom of intelligence, a vastly desired quality of which Umberto Eco as is well known was undoubtedly possessed.