The order that our mind imagines is like a net, or like a ladder, built to attain something. But afterward you must throw the ladder away, because you discover that, even if it was useful, it was meaningless.

UMBERTO ECO, The Name of the Rose

The Art of the Romance, though warning us that it is providing fictions, opens a door into the Palace of Absurdity, and when we have lightly stepped inside, slams it shut behind us.

UMBERTO ECO, The Island of the Day Before

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.

UMBERTO ECO, Foucault's Pendulum

For the enemy to be recognized and feared, he has to be in your home or on your doorstep.

UMBERTO ECO, The Prague Cemetery

The beauty of the universe consists not only of unity in variety, but also of variety in unity.

UMBERTO ECO, The Name of the Rose

Daytime sleep is like the sin of the flesh; the more you have the more you want, and yet you feel unhappy, sated and unsated at the same time.

UMBERTO ECO, The Name of the Rose

Any fact becomes important when it's connected to another.

UMBERTO ECO, Foucault's Pendulum