Quotes from book
The Name of the Rose

Name: The Name of the Rose
Author: Umberto Eco

Umberto EcoOriginal title Il nome della rosa (Italian, 1980)

The Name of the Rose is the 1980 debut novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327; an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies, and literary theory. It was translated into English by William Weaver in 1983.

“How peaceful life would be without Love, Adso. How Safe. How Tranquil. And how Dull.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Source: The Name of the Rose

“Fear prophets, Adso, and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Temi, Adso, i profeti e coloro disposti a morire per la verità, ché di solito fan morire moltissimo con loro, spesso prima di loro, talvolta al posto loro. <br class="br"> William of Baskerville http://books.google.com/books?id=XY2vXKsHbzIC&q=&quot;Fear+prophets+adso+and+those+prepared+to+die+for+the+truth+for+as+a+rule+they+make+many+others+die+with+them+often+before+them+at+times+instead+of+them&quot;&pg=PA549#v=onepage <br class="br">Source: The Name of the Rose (1980)

“How beautiful was the spectacle of nature not yet touched by
the often perverse wisdom of man!”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Source: The Name of the Rose

“Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do, but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Source: The Name of the Rose (1980)

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

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Variant: Nothing gives a fearful man more courage than another's fear.”" -
Source: The Name of the Rose

“Yesterday's rose endures in its name, we hold empty names.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Source: The Name of the Rose

“We live for books. A sweet mission in this world dominated by disorder and decay.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Source: The Name of the Rose

“Monsters exist because they are part of the divine plan, and in the horrible features of those same monsters the power of the creator is revealed.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Source: The Name of the Rose

“Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

William of Baskerville
Source: The Name of the Rose (1980)
Context: Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn't ask ourselves what it says but what it means...

“Show not what has been done, but what can be. How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Source: The Name of the Rose

“We live for books.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Benno of Uppsala
The Name of the Rose (1980)

“A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would have not written a novel, which is a machine for generating interpretations.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Source: The Name of the Rose

“Daytime sleep is like the sin of the flesh; the more you have the more you want, and yet you feel unhappy, sated and unsated at the same time.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Source: The Name of the Rose

“The order that our mind imagines is like a net, or like a ladder, built to attain something. But afterward you must throw the ladder away, because you discover that, even if it was useful, it was meaningless.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Source: The Name of the Rose

“A monk should surely love his books with humility, wishing their good and not the glory of his own curiosity; but what the temptation of adultery is for laymen and the yearning for riches is for secular ecclesiastics, the seduction of knowledge is for monks.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose (1980)

“The Devil is not the Prince of Matter; the Devil is the arrogance of the spirit, faith without smile, truth that is never seized by doubt. The Devil is grim because he knows where he is going, and, in moving, he always returns whence he came.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

William of Baskerville
The Name of the Rose (1980)

“There are magic moments, involving great physical fatigue and intense motor excitement, that produce visions of people known in the past. As I learned later from the delightful little book of the Abbé de Bucquoy, there are also visions of books as yet unwritten.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose (1980)

“The hand of God creates; it does not conceal.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

William of Baskerville
The Name of the Rose (1980)

“That man is … odd," I dared say to William.
"He is, or has been, in many ways a great man. But for this very reason he is odd. It is only petty men who seem normal.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose (1980)

“There is only one thing that arouses animals more than pleasure, and that is pain. Under torture you are as if under the dominion of those grasses that produce visions. Everything you have heard told, everything you have read returns to your mind, as if you were being transported, not toward heaven, but towards hell. Under torture you say not only what the inquisitor wants, but also what you imagine might please him, because a bond (this, truly, diabolical) is established between you and him.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

William of Baskerville http://books.google.com/books?id=XY2vXKsHbzIC&q=&quot;There+is+only+one+thing+that+arouses+animals+more+than+pleasure+and+that+is+pain+Under+torture+you+are+as+if+under+the+dominion+of+those+grasses+that+produce+visions+Everything+you+have+heard+told+everything+you+have+read+returns+to+your+mind+as+if+you+were+being+transported+not+toward+heaven+but+towards+helll+Under+torture+you+say+not+only+what+the+inquisitor+wants+but+also+what+you+imagine+might+please+him+because+a+bond+this+truly+diabolical+is+established+between+you+and+him&quot;&pg=PA73#v=onepage <br class="br">The Name of the Rose (1980)