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

There, Master Niketas,’ Baudolino said, ‘when I was not prey to the temptations of this world, I devoted my nights to imagining other worlds. A bit with the help of wine, and a bit with that of the green honey. There is nothing better than imagining other worlds,’ he said, ‘to forget the painful one we live in. At least so I thought then. I hadn’t yet realized that, imagining other worlds, you end up changing this one.

All the theories of conspiracy were always a way to escape our responsibilities. It is a very important kind of social sickness by which we avoid recognizing reality such as it is and avoid our responsibilities.

The step between ecstatic vision and sinful frenzy is all too brief.

The United States needed a civil war to unite properly.

I felt like poisoning a monk.

I suspect that there is no serious scholar who doesn’t like to watch television. I’m just the only one who confesses.