The Name of the Rose

"I have never regretted my decision, for I learned from my master much that was wise and good and true. When at last we parted company, he presented me with his eyeglasses. I was still young - he said - but someday they would serve me well. And in fact, I'm wearing them now on my nose as I write these lines. Then he embraced me fondly - like a father - and sent me on my way. I never saw him again, and know not what became of him, but I pray always that God received his soul, and forgave the many little vanities to which he was driven by his intellectual pride. And yet, now that I am an old, old man, I must confess that of all the faces that appear to me out of the past, the one I see most clearly is that of the girl of whom I've never ceased to dream these many long years. She was the only earthly love in my life, yet... I never knew, nor ever learned, her name."
[as an old man]

"Adso, if I knew the answers to everything, I would be teaching theology in Paris."

Adso: "Master? Have you ever been in love?"
William: "In love? Yeah, many times."
Adso: "You were?"
William: "Yes, of course. Aristotle, Ovid, Vergil..."
Adso: "No, no, no. I meant with a..."
William: "Oh. Ah. Are you not confusing love with lust?"
Adso: "Am I? I don't know. I want only her own good. I want her to be happy. I want to save her from her poverty."
William: "Oh, dear."
Adso: "Why "oh dear"?"
William: "You *are* in love."
Adso: "Is that bad?"
William: "For a monk, it does present certain problems."
Adso: "But doesn't St. Thomas Aquinas praise love above all other virtues?"
William: "Yes, the love of God, Adso. The love of God."
Adso: "Oh... And the love of woman?"
William: "Of woman? Thomas Aquinas knew precious little, but the scriptures are very clear. Proverbs warns us, "Woman takes possession of a man's precious soul", while Ecclesiastes tells us, "More bitter than death is woman"."
Adso: "Yes, but what do you think, Master?"
William: "Well, of course I don't have the benefit of your experience, but I find it difficult to convince myself that God would have introduced such a foul being into creation without endowing her with *some* virtures. Hmm? How peaceful life would be without love, Adso, how safe, how tranquil, and how dull."

William: "But what is so alarming about laughter?"
Jorge: "Laughter kills fear, and without fear there can be no faith, because without fear of the Devil there is no more need of God."