The 60 Best Phrases of Umberto Eco

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

Some of his literary works such as The Name of the Rose or The Island of the Day Before had great initial acceptance among the 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 some of his most interesting personal ideas were, 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.

The most memorable Umberto Eco 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 you must be able to predict the moves to make in order to checkmate the opponent.

Developing a thesis was always for Umberto Eco a great exercise of imagination a truly 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 at low cost, but we still do not have precise ideas about how to reconcile collective well-being, the future of young people, world overpopulation and the prolongation of life.

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

3. Writing a thesis means having fun and the thesis is like a pig, everything is useful in it.

A thesis is a very good opportunity to investigate in depth about a certain topic, a possibly unique moment in our lives that, if we know how to appreciate it, can be truly edifying for us.

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 small pleasures that can make us the happiest.

5. Is not affirming the absolute omnipotence of God and his absolute availability with respect to his own options equivalent to demonstrating 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 his non-existence.

6. A holy war is still a war.

All wars were always totally unnecessary for him, regardless of the reason that might have motivated them.

7. Social media gives the right to speak to legions of idiots who previously only spoke at the bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community. Then they were quickly silenced, but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It’s the invasion of the idiots.

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

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

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

9. This is a consumerism that does not tend towards the possession of objects of desire with which to be content, but rather immediately makes them obsolete, and the individual goes from one consumption to another in a kind of aimless bulimia (the new mobile phone It 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 desire).

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

10. The space of conjecture 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 undoubtedly not disappoint you.

11. Neapolitans and Sicilians liked him, mestizos too, not because of the mistake of a skin mother but because of the history of generations, born from crosses of disloyal Levantines, sweaty Arabs and degenerate Ostrogoths, who took the worst of each of their hybrid ancestors: of the Saracens, indolence; of the Swabians, ferocity; of the Greeks, fruitlessness and the pleasure of getting lost in conversations 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 of European history, an undoubtedly very interesting topic about which we can all learn more by reading some of his works.

12. There is more trafficking 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 allows producing 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 ever developed, a technological advance thanks to which today many of us can enjoy a truly comfortable standard of living.

14. Because science consists not only in knowing what should or can be done, but also in knowing what could be done although perhaps it should not be done.

As this quote tells us very well, some scientific experiments can cause more inconveniences than benefits, which is why as a society we must decide if it is really worth carrying them out or not.

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 all our knowledge and experiences from us we would simply become a totally empty nutshell.

16. Knowledge is not like currency, which remains physically intact even through the most nefarious exchanges; It is more like a suit of great beauty, which wears out with use and ostentation.

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.

17. What model reader did I want while writing? An accomplice, without a doubt, who came into 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 have always been a great source of inspiration for him; if it had been for this writing, he would have always written texts similar to those that were made in those times.

18. Heresies are always an expression of the concrete fact that there are excluded people.

We must value the opinion of others if we want them to also value ours, because as 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 pious soul.

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

20. Mauricio comes from Moses, Isidoro from Isaac, Eduardo from Arón, Jaime from Jacob and Alfonso from Adam…

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 harmful to creativity than the fury of inspiration.

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

22. It’s okay for the Pentagon and the CIA, but you won’t tell me that all car magazines depend on the secret services of the demoplutojudeocracy on the prowl.

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

23. Losers, like self-taught people, always have greater knowledge than winners. If you want to win you have to know just 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 been 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 fact that those people who are interested in many different disciplines usually do not excel in the practice of any of them.

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 to read it, which is why it never has to be too late to start an exciting read.

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

Society advances without rest and As we get older we tend to feel out of touch 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 reading.

Just because we have read a certain novel does not mean we have understood it completely; some literary works must be read more than once in order to admire each and every one of their nuances.

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

Nowadays, television is a medium that undoubtedly tends to leave 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 objective of a good definitive introduction is that the reader is satisfied with it, understands everything and does not read the rest.

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

29. There are things that you see coming, it’s 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 must pay close attention to where you are going: like having drunk a filter, the kind that makes you fall in love with the first person who passes by. It could be a platypus.

The human being goes 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, the introduction and the final index; that is, precisely the things that all authors do in the end.

If we want to be able to successfully complete a great work, we must take great care of our organization, an undoubtedly very correct idea that this writer always kept in mind throughout his entire 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 little bit of the devil within ourselves. It is ourselves with our virtues and defects 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 opportunity to do some exercises that will serve us as long as we live.

Having to write a doctoral thesis is a truly unique opportunity to be able to investigate in depth about a specific topic, a very specific situation that sometimes some people never encounter again in their entire lives.

33. The human soul is the true copulation 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 discussed by all the great philosophers in history and in this particular case, Alberto Eco was no exception to the rule.

34. Furthermore, if you work well there is no topic that 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 we can draw the most revealing conclusions, which is why any topic can be appropriate for a conversation as long as we talk to the right person.

35. I asked him what the cat’s name was and he answered that cats don’t have names because they are not Christians like dogs.

Something that many people do not know is that Umberto Eco was a complete atheist for a good part of his life. For him, religion was simply an abstract idea that some human beings decided 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 readers suggest to him.

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

37. It’s useless, we no longer have the wisdom of the ancients, the time of the giants is over! “We are dwarfs,” Guillermo admitted, “but dwarfs standing on the shoulders of those giants and, although small, we sometimes manage to see beyond their horizon.”

Umberto Eco always kept in mind the great debt that today’s society owes to the ancient world, since 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 standard of living.

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

Philosophy is a truly incredible discipline, thanks to it human beings were able to explain in the past some concepts that until now did not have a plausible explanation.

40. Objects are semantically worn out before their materiality.

For this writer Philosophy was always a totally indispensable part of his life which is why with the passage of time he never stopped asking himself a large number of existential questions.

41. Aspiring for something you will never have, is this the wisdom 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 over time we discover have always been totally unattainable for the vast majority of us.

• Related article: “Personal Development: 5 reasons for self-reflection“

42. Television appears to us as something similar to nuclear energy. Both can only be channeled based on clear cultural and moral decisions.

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

43. An enemy is necessary 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 audience.

Some books are so good that over time they manage 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 nationalism, for him the life of a person was always far above flags and ideologies.

46. ​​The world is full of precious books that no one 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 is well received by the public.

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

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

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

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.

Finding our best friend or our emotional partner is something that we do not do every day, perhaps as a society we should start celebrating more the day we finally met the person who matters so much to us today.

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 created, because, logically, Without it the current society in which we all live simply could never have developed.

• You may be interested: “The 5 ages of History (and their characteristics)“

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

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

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

As Umberto Eco 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 their 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 he is strange. Only small men seem normal.

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

54. I love cats. They are one of the few creatures that do not allow themselves to 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 about 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 to replicate certain ideals that third parties sometimes claim to possess will always be something that ends up causing us more harm than good.

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

When the time comes, we all discover that many of our childhood dreams can be totally unattainable for us, a very hard moment in anyone’s life that Umberto Eco decided to immortalize with this poetic quote.

57. Poop is the most personal and secretive thing we have. Everyone can know the rest, the expression on your face, your look, your gestures. Human beings love the scent of their own excrement but not that of other people’s. Deep down, they are part of our body.

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

58. The faith offered by a certain movement is not important, but the hope it proposes.

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

59. Every aesthetic image is surpassed by the possible images that it raises, that it opens up. However, no delusion could manifest, 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, can we be fully aware of the correct meaning of a certain artistic work.

60. Creativity means knowing who we are. It’s jazz without music, it’s a flow of energy. Being creative is being brave.

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