Our life is nothing, it is true, but our life is divine. A breath of nature annihilates us, but we surpass nature in penetrating far beyond her vast phantasmagoria to the changeless and the eternal.

Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy.

There is no respect for others without humility in one's self.

Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.

Women wish to be loved without a why or a wherefore; not because they are pretty, or good, or well-bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves.

Destiny has two ways of crushing us - by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.

In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past

In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past - a pious guardian of some affection, of which the object has disappeared.

Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more.

Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.

You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.

the essential feature of the Dissociative Disorders is a disruption in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity, or perception

I'm not that man anymore. No one can stay that way too long. That's why wars end and a later generation catches its breath looking forward and erasing what's behind.

I have a nightmare about Tony [Blair] and Gordon [Brown] killing each other. Not every month, but now and then. I also have a recurring dream about losing.

I love making people uncomfortable, and when people say, 'I cringed watching [that] scene,' that's the biggest compliment you can give me.

I want everybody to be happy because, if you're happy, you are more open to other people. Don't let misery bring you down.

Eco sees the intellectual as an organizer of culture, someone who can run a magazine or a museum. An administrator, in fact. I think this is a melancholy situation for an intellectual.

Everyone has troubles. Finding yourself in the same boat with everyone else is the first sign of spirituality.

Unless you can change the past, you’re wasting the present on this guilt

Minority views expressed in films simply don't sell tickets.

Poor but happy is not a phrase invented by a poor person.