55 Umberto Eco Quotes for You to Enjoy

Umberto Eco

Italian Novelist

Born: Jan 5, 1932

Died: Feb 19, 2016

Book Good Life People World You

People are tired of simple things. They want to be challenged. Umberto Eco

Tired People Simple Simple Things Want Challenged Things

To play the trumpet, you must train your lips for a long time. When I was twelve or thirteen I was a good player, but I lost the skill and now I play very badly. I do it every day even so. The reason is that I want to return to my childhood. For me, the trumpet is evidence of the sort of young man I was. Umberto Eco

Time Good Day Me You Man Every Day Long Long Time Lost Young Every Evidence Must Badly Return Sort Trumpet Very Train Lips Childhood Want Young Man Skill Your Reason Twelve Even Now Play Player Thirteen

Sometimes you say things with a smile with the precise intention of making it clear that you are not being serious, and are only kidding. If I salute a friend with a smile and say, 'How are you, you old scoundrel!' clearly I don't really mean he's a scoundrel. Umberto Eco

The thought that all experience will be lost at the moment of my death makes me feel pain and fear... What a waste, decades spent building up experience, only to throw it all away... We remedy this sadness by working. For example, by writing, painting, or building cities. Umberto Eco

Death Me Experience Writing Fear Sadness Will Thought Example Building Lost Pain Painting Spent Cities Only Throw Remedy Feel For Example Makes Up Decades Working Moment Waste Away

Young people do not watch television; they are on the Internet. Umberto Eco

People Internet Young Television Young People Watch

Today, political events are nullified unless they're on TV. Umberto Eco

Today Events Political Unless TV

Certainly, light fiction exists and encompasses mysteries or second-class romance novels, books that are read on the beach, whose only aim is to entertain. These books are not concerned with style or creativity - instead they are successful because they are repetitive and follow a template that readers enjoy. Umberto Eco

Creativity Light Mysteries Style Enjoy Aim Books Entertain Follow Beach Only Instead Concerned Read Readers Because Exists Repetitive Romance Fiction Successful Certainly Novels Whose Second-Class

Our life is full of empty space. Umberto Eco

Life Space Empty Space Our Empty Full

A secret is powerful when it is empty. Umberto Eco

Secret Powerful Empty

I was a fervent Catholic, and I belonged to the national organizations, even becoming one of the national leaders, until the age of 21, 22. Umberto Eco

Age National Leaders Until Catholic Becoming Fervent Organizations Even Belonged

Our most noted satirists are true columnists, and their opinions can be worth more than any well-documented expose. Umberto Eco

Worth Our More True Most Opinions Than Any Noted Expose

Semiotics is a general theory of all existing languages... all forms of communication - visual, tactile, and so on... There is general semiotics, which is a philosophical approach to this field, and then there are many specific semiotics. Umberto Eco

Communication Field Approach Philosophical Visual General Tactile Existing Which Forms Then Languages Theory Many Specific

One can be a great poet and be politically stupid. Umberto Eco

Great Poet Stupid Politically

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

After years of practice, I can walk into a bookstore and understand its layout in a few seconds. I can glance at the spine of a book and make a good guess at its content from a number of signs. Umberto Eco

Good Book Walk Signs Practice Few Seconds Guess Bookstore I Can Spine Layout Glance Make Content Understand Years After Number

I could work in the shower if I had plastic paper. Umberto Eco

Work Paper Could Had Shower Plastic

We have a limit, a very discouraging, humiliating limit: death. Umberto Eco

Death Humiliating Limit Discouraging Very

If people buy my books for vanity, I consider it a tax on idiocy. Umberto Eco

Buy People Consider Books Vanity Idiocy Tax

The court jester had the right to say the most outrageous things to the king. Everything was permitted during carnival, even the songs that the Roman legionnaires would sing, calling Julius Caesar 'queen,' alluding, in a very transparent way, to his real, or presumed, homosexual escapades. Umberto Eco

Queen King Everything Way Carnival Say Would Outrageous Had Songs Caesar Most Sing Calling Court Real Permitted His Julius Julius Caesar Very Roman Transparent Even Right Things Homosexual

When the poet is in love, he is incapable of writing poetry on love. He has to write when he remembers that he was in love. Umberto Eco

Love Writing Poet Poetry Write He Remembers Incapable

It comes down to a question of attention: it's difficult to use the Net distractedly, unlike the television or the radio. Umberto Eco

Down Difficult Unlike Television Net Attention Question Use Radio

We like lists because we don't want to die. Umberto Eco

Like Because Die Lists Want

I think of myself as a serious professor who, during the weekend, writes novels. Umberto Eco

Myself Think I Think Weekend Writes Who Serious Novels Professor