When all the archetypes burst out shamelessly, we plumb the depths of Homeric profundity. Two clichรฉs make us laugh but a hundred clichรฉs moves us because we sense dimly that the clichรฉs are talking among themselves, celebrating a reunion. . . . Just as the extreme of pain meets sensual pleasure, and the extreme of perversion borders on mystical energy, so too the extreme of banality allows us to catch a glimpse of the Sublime.
Umberto EcoI have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
Umberto EcoWe have a limit, a very discouraging, humiliating limit: death. That's why we like all the things that we assume have no limits and, therefore, no end. It's a way of escaping thoughts about death. We like lists because we don't want to die.
Umberto EcoThe truth is a young maiden as modest as she is beautiful, and therefore she is always seen cloaked.
Umberto EcoEach of us is sometimes a cretin, a fool, a moron, or a lunatic. A normal person is just a reasonable mix of these components, these four ideal types.
Umberto Eco