I developed a passion for the Middle Ages the same way some people develop a passion for coconuts.
Umberto EcoA transposable aphorism is a malaise of the urge to be witty, or in other words, a maxim that is untroubled by the fact that the opposite of what it says is equally true so long as it appears to be funny.
Umberto EcoBut Italy is not an intellectual country. On the subway in Tokyo everybody reads. In Italy, they don't. Don't evaluate Italy from the fact that it produced Raphael and Michelangelo.
Umberto EcoI have always been fascinated by paranoid people imagining conspiracies. I am fascinated by this in a critical way.
Umberto Eco