Joseph’s Reviews > The Name of the Rose > Status Update

The good of a book lies in it's being read. A book is made up of signs that speak of other signs, which in their turn speak of things. Without an eye to read them, a book contains signs that produce no concepts; therefore it is dumb.

Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn't ask ourselves what it says but what it means, a precept that the commentators of the holy books had very clearly in mind.

Learning is not like a coin, which remains physically whole even through the most infamous transactions; it is, rather, like a very handsome dress which is worn out through use and ostentation.