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 Read Quote
Political satire is a serious thing. In democratic newspapers throughout the world there are daily cartoons that often are not even funny, as is the case especially in many English-language newspapers. Instead, they contain a political message, and the artist takes full responsibility. Umberto Eco Read Quote
A transposable aphorism is a malaise of the urge to be witty, or in other words, a maxim that is untroubled by the fact that the opposite of what it says is equally true so long as it appears to be funny. Umberto Eco Read Quote
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 Read Quote
Homer’s work hits again and again on the topos of the inexpressible. People will always do that. Umberto Eco Read Quote
You die, but most of what you have accumulated will not be lost; you are leaving a message in a bottle. Umberto Eco Read Quote
We are never racist against somebody who is very far away. I don’t know any racism against the Eskimos. To have a racist feeling, there must be an other who is slightly different from us – but is living close to us. Umberto Eco Read Quote
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 Read Quote
I think of myself as a serious professor who, during the weekend, writes novels. Umberto Eco Read Quote
