Quotes by Umberto Eco

"Semiotics is a general theory of all existing languages... all forms of communication - visual, tactile, and so on... There is general semiotics, which is a philosophical approach to this field, and then there are many specific semiotics."

"Berlusconi is a genius in communication. Otherwise, he would never have become so rich."

"Nothing gives a fearful man more courage than another's fear."

"Religion has nothing to do with God. It's a fundamental attitude of human beings, who ask about the origins of life and what happens after death. For many, the answer is a personal god. In my opinion, it's religion that produces God, not the other way round."

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

"Translation is the art of failure."

"The comic is the perception of the opposite; humor is the feeling of it."

"Sometimes you say things with a smile with the precise intention of making it clear that you are not being serious, and are only kidding. If I salute a friend with a smile and say, 'How are you, you old scoundrel!' clearly I don't really mean he's a scoundrel."

"I 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."

"Our life is full of empty space."