Foucault's Pendulum

by Umberto Eco

Every great thinker is someone else’s moron.”

But, infinitely powerful as you are, you can afford to be long-suffering.

All the traditions of the earth must be seen as deriving from a fundamental mother-tradition that, from the beginning, was entrusted to sinful man and to his first offspring. —Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, De l’esprit des choses, Paris, Laran, 1800, II, “De l’esprit des traditions en général”

The wise man does not discriminate; he gathers together all the shreds of light, from wherever they may come. . . .

The important thing is to venerate the force. The aspect of the force must fit each man’s ability to comprehend.

The fact that they didn’t answer was taken as proof of their existence.

The mystic is useful, because he is conspicuous. He broadcasts himself. Initiates, on the contrary, are recognizable only to one another. It is they who control the forces that mystics undergo.

permitted—or wanted—the

hermeticists.

he declares that the league exists, so that people will then create it.

Beware of faking: people will believe you.

Now They were on the verge of knowing it. But They were assailed by two fears: that the secret would be a disappointment, and that once it was known to all, there would be no secret left. Which would be the end of Them.