The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.
Umberto EcoRead
We have a limit, a very discouraging, humiliating limit: death.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Death is the ultimate limit that humans face, which can feel both discouraging and humbling.
Umberto Eco's quote reflects on the inevitability of death as a fundamental limit of human existence. It suggests that this realization can evoke feelings of discouragement and humiliation, as it confronts us with our mortality and the finite nature of our lives, urging us to contemplate the significance of our actions and the value of our time.
Themes
DeathLimitMortalityHuman ConditionExistence
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a philosophical discussion about the meaning of life.
More from Umberto Eco
All quotes βI think that at a certain age, say fifteen or sixteen, poetry is like masturbation. But later in life good poets burn their early poetry, and bad poets publish it. Thankfully I gave up rather quickly.
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But why do some people support [the heretics]?" "Because it serves their purposes, which concern the faith rarely, and more often the conquest of power." "Is that why the church of Rome accuses all its adversaries of heresy?" "That is why, and that is also why it recognizes as orthodoxy any heresy it can bring back under its own control or must accept because the heresy has become too strong.
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You die, but most of what you have accumulated will not be lost; you are leaving a message in a bottle.
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"Then we are living in a place abandoned by God," I said, disheartened. "Have you found any places where God would have felt at home?" William asked me, looking down from his great height.
Umberto EcoRead
The lunatic is all idΓ©e fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars.
Umberto EcoRead
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