On the Shoulders of Giants Quotes

“A paradox is a genuine reversal of the commonly accepted point of view, one that presents an unacceptable world, thereby eliciting resistance and rejection, and yet, if we make an effort to understand it, it is one that leads to knowledge; eventually it seems to be witty because it has to be admitted that it is true.”
― Umberto Eco, On the Shoulders of Giants: The Milan Lectures

“…a paradox would appear to be a maximum that looks false at first sight and, only after mature reflection, seems to express what the author believes to be true and, because of the hiatus between the expectations of popular opinion and its provocative form, also appears to be witty”
― Umberto Eco, On the Shoulders of Giants: The Milan Lectures

“If there is something paradoxical, in the sense of curious or bizarre, it is that the word paradox has two fairly different meanings: one which is used in logic and philosophy, and the other in rhetoric.”
― Umberto Eco, On the Shoulders of Giants: The Milan Lectures

“Elie Wiesel used to say that those who believed that all things are permitted were not those who believed that God was dead, but those who thought they were God (a shortcoming common to dictators great and small).”
― Umberto Eco, On the Shoulders of Giants: The Milan Lectures

“I believe that over the centuries the experience of beauty has always been similar to the way we feel, as if seen from the back, when we are in the presence of something we are not a part of and do not wish to become a part of at any cost. In that distance lies the slender thread that separates the experience of beauty from other forms of passion.”
― Umberto Eco, On the Shoulders of Giants: The Milan Lectures

“The bad architect, addicted to aestheticism, is vexed because a door must be hung on a hinge, and redesigns the latter so that it appears ‘beautiful’ as it performs its function; and by doing this he finds that the door often creaks, jams, and will not open or opens badly. The good architect on the other hand wants the door to open and reveal other spaces, and after having redesigned everything in the building, he does not care if he has to rely on the eternal wisdom of the ironmonger.”
― Umberto Eco, On the Shoulders of Giants: The Milan Lectures

“With irony we say the opposite of truth.”
― Umberto Eco, On the Shoulders of Giants: The Milan Lectures

“Reflect before you think.”
― Umberto Eco, On the Shoulders of Giants: The Milan Lectures

“...which reminds me of a saying attributed to Arthur Rubenstein: ‘Do you believe in God? No, I believe in something much greater.’ The best way we can manage to imagine in trying to conceive of God is the classic night in which all cows are black.”
― Umberto Eco, On the Shoulders of Giants: The Milan Lectures

“Constant innovation constantly accepted by everybody will lead to ranks of dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of other dwarfs.”
― Umberto Eco, On the Shoulders of Giants: The Milan Lectures

“Duchamp stuck a moustache on the Mona Lisa, but he needed a Mona Lisa to stick the moustache on; and in order to deny that he was painting a pipe, Magritte had to paint a meticulously realistic pipe.”
― Umberto Eco, On the Shoulders of Giants: The Milan Lectures

“Visionaries see only what their culture has taught them to see and allows them to imagine.”
― Umberto Eco, On the Shoulders of Giants: The Milan Lectures

“Fire is therefore too many things and – as well as being a psychological phenomenon – it becomes a symbol, and like all symbols it is ambiguous, polysemic and evokes different meanings according to the situation.”
― umberto eco, On the Shoulders of Giants: The Milan Lectures