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You cannot believe what you are saying. Well, no. Hardly ever. But the philosopher is like the poet. The latter composes ideal letters for an ideal nymph, only to plumb with his words the depths of passion. The philosopher tests the coldness of his gaze, to see how far he can undermine the fortress of bigotry.

Umberto Eco

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Umberto Eco
Age: 84 †
Born: 1932
Born: January 5
Died: 2016
Died: February 19
Essayist
Historian
Literary Critic
Literary Scholar
Medievalist
Novelist
Pedagogue
Philosopher
Screenwriter
Semiotician
Translator
Lissändria
Umberto Ecco
Umberto Eccounstino
Humberto Eco
Dedalus
Umberto Eko
Oumperto Eko
Eco Umberto
U. Eco
Well
Ideals
Depths
Composes
Believe
Poet
Hardly
Nymphs
Like
Saying
Ideal
Fortress
Passion
Latter
Coldness
Words
Philosopher
Fortresses
Cannot
Tests
Undermine
Ever
Depth
Gaze
Plumb
Wells
Letters
Bigotry
Nymph

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But the purpose of a story is to teach and to please at once, and what it teaches is how to recognize the snares of the world.
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Socrates ... did not write. It seems academically obvious that he perished because he did not publish!
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The more elusive and ambiguous a symbol is, the more it gains significance and power.
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But why doesn't the Gospel ever say that Christ laughed? I asked, for no good reason. Is Jorge right? Legions of scholars have wondered whether Christ laughed. The question doesn't interest me much. I believe he never laughed, because, omniscient as the son of God had to be, he knew how we Christians would behave. . . .
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To read a paper book is another experience: you can do it on a ship, on the branch of a tree, on your bed, even if there is a blackout.
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Every time that I write a novel I am convinced for at least two years that it is the last one, because a novel is like a child. It takes two years after its birth. You have to take care of it. It starts walking, and then speaking.
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Contemporary societies have lost the sense of the feast but have kept the obscure drive for it.
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A sure sign of a lunatic is that sooner or later, he brings up the Templars.
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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.
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Conspiracies and all the theories of conspiracy are a part of the canon of fakes. And I'm involved, in all of my writings, the theoretical ones as well as the novels, with the production of fakes.
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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.
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The Internet gives us everything and forces us to filter it not by the workings of culture, but with our own brains. This risks creating six billion separate encyclopedias, which would prevent any common understanding whatsoever.
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If western culture is shown to be rich it is because, even before the Enlightenment, it has tried to dissolve harmful simplifications through inquiry and the critical mind.
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The function of memory is not only to preserve, but also to throw away. If you remembered everything from your entire life, you would be sick.
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We were clever enough to turn a laundry list into poetry.
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I suspect that there is no serious scholar who doesn’t like to watch television. I’m just the only one who confesses.
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It is obvious that the newspaper produces the opinion of the readers.
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I have always been fascinated by paranoid people imagining conspiracies. I am fascinated by this in a critical way.
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But laughter is weakness, corruption, the foolishness of our flesh.
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I am an old consumer of papers. I cannot avoid reading my newspapers every morning.
Umberto Eco