Umberto Eco

The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.

No member of society has the right to teach any doctrine contrary to what society holds to be true.

Wherever there is power there is age.

Civilisation will not last, freedom will not survive, peace will not be kept, unless a very large majority of mankind unite together to defend them and show themselves possessed of a constabulary power before which barbaric and atavistic forces will stand in awe.

A wise man does not waste so good a commodity as lying for naught.

The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined – to strengthen each other – to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories.

Trust yourself. You’ve survived a lot, and you’ll survive whatever is coming.

No comment is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.

Which is worse? The wolf who cries before eating the lamb or the wolf who does not.

How we glow over these novels of passion, when the story is told with any spark of truth and nature! And what fastens attention, in the intercourse of life, like any passage betraying affection between two parties? Perhaps we never saw them before and never shall meet them again. But we see them exchange a glance or betray a deep emotion, and we are no longer strangers. We understand them and take the warmest interest in the development of the romance. All mankind love a lover.

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

He does not care for flowers. Calls them rubbish, and cannot tell one from another, and thinks it is superior to feel like that.

Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.

If man is to be liberated to enjoy more leisure, he must also be prepared to enjoy this leisure fully and creatively.