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Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco Quotes

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Famous Umberto Eco Quotes

“You must overcome any shyness and have a conversation with the librarian, because he can offer you reliable advice that will save you much time. You must consider that the librarian (if not overworked or neurotic) is happy when he can demonstrate two things: the quality of his memory and erudition and the richness of his library, especially if it is small. The more isolated and disregarded the library, the more the librarian is consumed with sorrow for its underestimation. A person who asks for help makes the librarian happy.”

IfsPersonsTwoHelpingAsksMemoriesQualityAdviceSorrowOffersConversationOvercomingLibraryTwo ThingsIsolatedConsumedLibrarianRichnessNeuroticShynessDisregardedErudition
Author:Umberto Eco
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“They [the Templars] had read Avicenna, and they were not ignorant, like the Europeans. How could you live alongside a tolerant, mystical, libertine culture for two centuries without succumbing to its allure, particularly when you compared it to Western culture, which was crude, vulgar, barbaric, and Germanic?”

TwoCultureCenturyWesternIgnorantMysticalVulgarCrudeWestern CultureBarbaricAllureLibertineSuccumbingTemplars
Book:Foucault's Pendulum
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“Given that there are seven billion people living on this earth, there is a consistent quantity of imbecile or idiot, okay. Previously, these people could express themselves only with their friends or at the bar after two or three glasses of something, and they said every silliness, and people laughed. Now they have the possibility to show up on the internet. And so, on the internet, along with the messages of a lot of interesting and important people - even the Pope is writing on Twitter - we have a great quantity of idiots.”

PeopleWritingSaidTwoImportantShowsEarthThreeGivenInterestingPossibilityInternetMessagesOkaySevenGlassesBillionsBarsIdiotConsistentLaughedQuantityPopeThey SaidLiving OnImbecilesSilliness
Author:Umberto Eco
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“When all the archetypes burst out shamelessly, we plumb the depths of Homeric profundity. Two clichés make us laugh but a hundred clichés moves us because we sense dimly that the clichés are talking among themselves, celebrating a reunion. . . . Just as the extreme of pain meets sensual pleasure, and the extreme of perversion borders on mystical energy, so too the extreme of banality allows us to catch a glimpse of the Sublime.”

TwoPainMovingEnergyPleasureTalkingLaughingLaughterHundredDepthExtremesCelebrateSensualBordersSublimeMysticalGlimpseReunionPerversionArchetypeBanalityProfunditySensual Pleasure
Author:Umberto Eco
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“Usually naive interviewers hover between two mutually contradictory convictions: one, that a text we call creative develops almost instantaneously in the mystic heat of inspirational raptus; or the other, that the writer has followed a recipe, a kind of secret set of rules that they would like to see revealed. There is no set of rules, or, rather, there are many, varied and flexible rules.”

KindTwoSecretCreativeConvictionHeatRecipesNaiveFlexibleContradictoryMysticInterviewers
Author:Umberto Eco
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