The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.
Umberto EcoRead
To play the trumpet, you must train your lips for a long time. When I was twelve or thirteen I was a good player, but I lost the skill and now I play very badly. I do it every day even so. The reason is that I want to return to my childhood. For me, the trumpet is evidence of the sort of young man I was.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Mastery in any skill requires persistent practice and a connection to one's past.
In this quote, Umberto Eco reflects on the importance of dedication and practice in mastering an art form, using the trumpet as a metaphor for his youthful aspirations. He acknowledges the loss of skill over time but emphasizes the importance of daily effort to reconnect with his past self while also highlighting how personal history influences our motivations and identity.
Themes
TrumpetPracticeChildhoodDedicationSkillIdentity
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about perseverance in the arts, one might say: 'As Umberto Eco stated, to play the trumpet, you must train your lips for a long time.'
More from Umberto Eco
All quotes →I 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.
Umberto EcoRead
"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 idée 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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