Umberto Eco quotes

Umberto Eco was a renowned Italian author, philosopher, and semiotician. Born in 1932, Eco's literary works exemplified his deep understanding of history, culture, and language. His internationally acclaimed novel "The Name of the Rose" captivated readers with its intricate plot set in a 14th-century monastery. Eco's versatility expanded beyond fiction, as he also delved into academic pursuits, publishing several influential works on semiotics. Recognized for his intellectual prowess, Eco's writings continue to inspire and challenge readers worldwide. Discover the brilliance of Umberto Eco's literary legacy and academic contributions.

I believe that you can reach the point where there is no longer any difference between developing the habit of pretending to believe and developing the habit of believing.

- Umberto Eco

When you are on the dancefloor, there is nothing to do but dance.

- Umberto Eco

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.

- Umberto Eco

We live for books.

- Umberto Eco

To survive, you must tell stories.

- Umberto Eco

People are never so completely and enthusiastically evil as when they act out of religious conviction.

- Umberto Eco

Nothing gives a fearful man more courage than another's fear.

- Umberto Eco

I love the smell of book ink in the morning.

- Umberto Eco

Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn't ask ourselves what it says but what it means...

- Umberto Eco

As the man said, for every complex problem there’s a simple solution, and it’s wrong.

- Umberto Eco

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

- Umberto Eco

Absence is to love as wind is to fire: it extinguishes the little flame, it fans the big.

- Umberto Eco

All poets write bad poetry. Bad poets publish them, good poets burn them.

- Umberto Eco

Better reality than a dream: if something is real, then it's real and you're not to blame.

- Umberto Eco

A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. so the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion.

- Umberto Eco

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.

- Umberto Eco

Fear prophets and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them.

- Umberto Eco

In the United States there's a Puritan ethic and a mythology of success. He who is successful is good. In Latin countries, in Catholic countries, a successful person is a sinner.

- Umberto Eco

Nothing gives a fearful man more courage than another's fear.

- Umberto Eco

The comic is the perception of the opposite; humor is the feeling of it.

- Umberto Eco

But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.

- Umberto Eco

Perhaps the mission of those who love mankind is to make people laugh at the truth, to make truth laugh, because the only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for the truth.

- Umberto Eco

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.

- Umberto Eco

I would define the poetic effect as the capacity that a text displays for continuing to generate different readings, without ever being completely consumed.

- Umberto Eco

Translation is the art of failure.

- Umberto Eco

There is no great sport in having bullets flying about one in every direction, but I find they have less horror when among them than when in anticipation.

- Umberto Eco

A dream is a scripture, and many scriptures are nothing but dreams.

- Umberto Eco

The good of a book lies in its being read. A book is made up of signs that speak of other signs, which in their turn speak of things. Without an eye to read them, a book contains signs that produce no concepts; therefore it is dumb.

- Umberto Eco

The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.

- Umberto Eco