The good of a book lies in its 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.

There are four types: the cretin, the imbecile, the stupid and the mad. Normality is a balanced mixture of all four.

I would define the poetic effect as the capacity that a text displays for continuing to generate different readings, without ever being completely consumed.

Living the same sorrows three times was a suffering, but it was a suffering to relive even the same joys. The joy of life is born from feeling, whether it be joy or grief, always of short duration, and woe to those who know they will enjoy eternal bliss.

The pleasures of love are pains that become desirable, where sweetness and torment blend, and so love is voluntary insanity, infernal paradise, and celestial hell - in short, harmony of opposite yearnings, sorrowful laughter, soft diamond.

If you want to use television to teach somebody, you must first teach them how to use television.

History is a blood-drenched enigma and the world an error.