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Benno of Upsala
Jorge is one of the oldest monks at the abbey. Despite his blindness, he has a prodigious memory and knowledge of the library, and the other monks clearly hold him in high regard. He debates with William several times on the subject of laughter, which Jorge finds deeply threatening, believing that to laugh is to mock God’s truth and fail to combat the enemies of the Christian faith. As William and Adso’s days at the abbey draw to a close, he preaches an apocalyptic sermon predicting the Last Judgment. On the seventh and final day, William and Adso break into the labyrinth and find Jorge in the finis Africae. Jorge admits that he has been the real power in the library for the past decades, and that he masterminded the murders in order to keep the secret that the library holds the sole surviving copy of the lost second book of Aristotle’s Poetics, on comedy. Jorge believes this book is dangerous and would subvert the order of religion and society. Rather than allow William and Adso to take the book, he eats the poisoned pages. As William and Adso struggle with him, they knock over a lamp, setting the library on fire.
Jorge of Burgos Quotes in The Name of the Rose
The The Name of the Rose quotes below are all either spoken by Jorge of Burgos or refer to Jorge of Burgos. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Second Day
Quotes
“The spirit is serene only when it contemplates the truth and takes delight in good achieved, and truth and good are not to be laughed at. That is why Christ did not laugh. Laughter foments doubt.”
“But sometimes it is right to doubt.”
“I cannot see any reason. When you are in doubt, you must turn to an authority, to the words of a father or of a doctor; then all reason for doubt ceases.”
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Sixth Day
Quotes
The language of gems is multiform: each expresses several truths, according to the sense of the selected interpretation, according to the context in which they appear. And who decides what is the proper context? You know, my boy, for they have taught you: it is authority, the most reliable commentator of all and the most invested with prestige, and therefore with sanctity. Otherwise how to avoid the misunderstandings into which the Devil lures us?
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Seventh Day
Quotes
The Devil is the arrogance of the spirit, faith without smile, truth that is never seized by doubt. […]And now I say to you that, in the infinite whirl of possible things, God allows you also to imagine a world where the presumed interpreter of the truth is nothing but a clumsy raven, who repeats words learned long ago.
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Jorge of Burgos Quotes in The Name of the Rose
The The Name of the Rose quotes below are all either spoken by Jorge of Burgos or refer to Jorge of Burgos. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Second Day
Quotes
“The spirit is serene only when it contemplates the truth and takes delight in good achieved, and truth and good are not to be laughed at. That is why Christ did not laugh. Laughter foments doubt.”
“But sometimes it is right to doubt.”
“I cannot see any reason. When you are in doubt, you must turn to an authority, to the words of a father or of a doctor; then all reason for doubt ceases.”
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Sixth Day
Quotes
The language of gems is multiform: each expresses several truths, according to the sense of the selected interpretation, according to the context in which they appear. And who decides what is the proper context? You know, my boy, for they have taught you: it is authority, the most reliable commentator of all and the most invested with prestige, and therefore with sanctity. Otherwise how to avoid the misunderstandings into which the Devil lures us?
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Seventh Day
Quotes
The Devil is the arrogance of the spirit, faith without smile, truth that is never seized by doubt. […]And now I say to you that, in the infinite whirl of possible things, God allows you also to imagine a world where the presumed interpreter of the truth is nothing but a clumsy raven, who repeats words learned long ago.
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