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Umberto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum
Dec. 31st, 2003 08:24 amSomething made me think of it this morning. I love this book. It twists and turns, by the end making you wonder if the true conspirasy is that there is, or isn't one and it's all about a deeper thousand year old mystery/manipulation.
Anywho- I also love Eco's writing. He reads and speaks meany languages and if he thinks something is better said in Italian, or French that's how you get it- no translation.
Just a light morning ramble, now I leave you with some wonderful quotes.
"What did I really think fifteen years ago? As a nonbeliever, I felt guilty in the midst of all those believers. And since it seemed to me that they were in the right, I decided to believe, as you might decide to take an aspirin: It can't hurt, and you might get better."
"The animal that coils in a circle is the serpent; that's why so many cults and myths of the serpent exist, because it's hard to represent the return of the sun by the coiling of a hippopotamus."
"...these are now people lost in a maze: some choose one path, some another; some shout for help, and there's no telling if the replies they hear are other [lost] voices or the echo of their own..."
Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message."
"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."
"If two things don't fit, but you believe both of them, thinking that somewhere, hidden, there must be a third thing that connects them, that's credulity."
"I believe that you can reach the point where there is no longer any difference between developing the habit of pretending to believe and developing the habit of believing."
"When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything."
"I have understood. And the certainty that there is nothing to understand should be my peace, my triumph."
Okay, so I'm a book geek.
While I'm quoting, just one more:
"The biggest cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid people are so sure about things and the intelligent folks are so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell
Anywho- I also love Eco's writing. He reads and speaks meany languages and if he thinks something is better said in Italian, or French that's how you get it- no translation.
Just a light morning ramble, now I leave you with some wonderful quotes.
"What did I really think fifteen years ago? As a nonbeliever, I felt guilty in the midst of all those believers. And since it seemed to me that they were in the right, I decided to believe, as you might decide to take an aspirin: It can't hurt, and you might get better."
"The animal that coils in a circle is the serpent; that's why so many cults and myths of the serpent exist, because it's hard to represent the return of the sun by the coiling of a hippopotamus."
"...these are now people lost in a maze: some choose one path, some another; some shout for help, and there's no telling if the replies they hear are other [lost] voices or the echo of their own..."
Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message."
"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."
"If two things don't fit, but you believe both of them, thinking that somewhere, hidden, there must be a third thing that connects them, that's credulity."
"I believe that you can reach the point where there is no longer any difference between developing the habit of pretending to believe and developing the habit of believing."
"When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything."
"I have understood. And the certainty that there is nothing to understand should be my peace, my triumph."
Okay, so I'm a book geek.
While I'm quoting, just one more:
"The biggest cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid people are so sure about things and the intelligent folks are so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell
