Umberto Eco Quotes

A collection of quotes by Umberto Eco.

Umberto Eco was an Italian novelist, philosopher, literary critic, and semiotician. He was born on January 5, 1932, in Alessandria, Italy, and passed away on February 19, 2016, in Milan. Eco gained worldwide recognition for his novel "The Name of the Rose," published in 1980, which combined historical fiction, murder mystery, and semiotic theory. The book became an international bestseller and was later adapted into a successful film.

Eco's academic career was equally illustrious. He taught at several universities, including the University of Bologna, where he was appointed Professor of Semiotics. He was widely regarded as one of the leading scholars in the field of semiotics, the study of signs and symbols and their interpretation.

Throughout his life, Eco published numerous influential works on semiotics, aesthetics, literary theory, and cultural studies. His writings often explored the complex relationship between fiction and reality, examining subjects such as the nature of interpretation, the power of signs, and the construction of meaning.

Umberto Eco's intellectual contributions bridged the gap between the scholarly world and mainstream literature, making semiotics accessible to a wider readership. His extensive body of work continues to inspire and influence academics, writers, and readers around the globe, solidifying his reputation as one of the most significant and versatile thinkers of the 20th century.

I would define the poetic effect as the capacity that a text

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

Poetry

The postmodern reply to the modern consists of recognizing t

The postmodern reply to the modern consists of recognizing that the past, since it cannot really be destroyed, because its destruction leads to silence, must be revisited: but with irony, not innocently. I think of the postmodern attitude as that of a man who loves a very cultivated woman and knows he cannot say to her, I love you madly, because he knows that she knows (and that she knows that he knows) that these words have already been written by Barbara Cartland. Still, there is a solution. He can say, As Barbara Cartland would put it, I love you madly.

Modern Modernism

There is a constant in the average American imagination and

There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.

America

The ideology of this America wants to establish reassurance

The ideology of this America wants to establish reassurance through Imitation. But profit defeats ideology, because the consumers want to be thrilled not only by the guarantee of the Good but also by the shudder of the Bad.

America

There are more people than you think who want to have a chal

There are more people than you think who want to have a challenging experience, in which they are obliged to reflect about the past.

Experience

But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an en

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.

Truth

Fear prophets and those prepared to die for the truth, for a

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.

Fear

From lies to forgeries the step is not so long, and I have w

From lies to forgeries the step is not so long, and I have written technical essays on the logic of forgeries and on the influence of forgeries on history.

History

The comic is the perception of the opposite humor is the fee

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

Humor

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

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

Dreams

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

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

Courage