But I don't think I have any particular talent for prediction, because when you have three or four elements in hand, you don't have to be a genius to reach certain conclusions.

I prefer insomnia to anaesthesia.

I vividly remember the stories my grandfather told me about the carnage of the First World War, which people tend to forget was one of the worst massacres in human history.

It's the job of intellectuals and writers to cast doubt on perfection.

I live quietly at home among my family and friends.

But democracy isn't a state of perfection. It has to be improved, and that means constant vigilance.

People with lots of doubts sometimes find life more oppressive and exhausting than others, but they're more energetic - they aren't robots.

There are some fundamental values it's impossible to be wrong about.

Eco sees the intellectual as an organizer of culture, someone who can run a magazine or a museum. An administrator, in fact. I think this is a melancholy situation for an intellectual.

Perfection spawns doctrines, dictators and totalitarian ideas.

I don't want to promote my own image either. I don't like going on television or mixing in literary circles.

I can tell you that the only thing in the world that makes sense to me right now is you and me.

Friends, I was pretty sure, lift their friends up; they don't weigh them down like a sack full of stones

Ireland is a great country to die or be married in.

We will by conscious command evolve cerebral centers which will permit us to use powers that we now are not even capable of imagining.

Self is a construct, a feeling, an identity that is internal and can neither be given nor taken away by others. We develop and nurture that identity by embracing inter-dependence.

We shouldn't any of us be afraid of teaching protective measures to save lives.

I never really got into any records purely thinking of them as a breakup record. I mean, honestly, for me, listening to a breakup record whilst dealing with one seems counterproductive!

Pat Riley is the best coach I've ever had...

The sea cries with its meaningless voice, Treating alike its dead and its living

No greater victory can be won by citizens or soldiers than to transform temporary foes into permanent friends.