How to Write a Thesis Quotes

“There are many things that I do not know because I photocopied a text and then relaxed as if I had read it.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“The “thesis neurosis” has begun: the student abandons the thesis, returns to it, feels unfulfilled, loses focus, and uses his thesis as an alibi to avoid other challenges in his life that he is too cowardly to address. This student will never graduate.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“If a student works rigorously, no topic is truly foolish, and the student can draw useful conclusions even from a remote or peripheral topic.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“A thesis should take no more than three years because, if the student has failed to delimit his topic and find the necessary sources after this period, he has one of the following problems: 1. The student has chosen an overwhelming topic that is beyond his skill level. 2. The student is one of those insatiable persons who would like to write about everything, and who will continue to work on his thesis for 20 years. (A clever scholar will instead set limits, however modest, and produce something definitive within those limits.) 3. The “thesis neurosis” has begun: the student abandons the thesis, returns to it, feels unfulfilled, loses focus, and uses his thesis as an alibi to avoid other challenges in his life that he is too cowardly to address. This student will never graduate.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“Rather, they prove that students can make something out of their education.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“writing a thesis is like writing a book, working incrementally with the professor is a communication exercise that assumes the existence of an audience,”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“You must consider that the librarian (if not overworked or neurotic) is happy when he can demonstrate two things: the quality of his memory and erudition and the richness of his library, especially if it is small. The more isolated and disregarded the library, the more the librarian is consumed with sorrow for its underestimation. A person who asks for help makes the librarian happy.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“You are not Proust. Do not write long sentences. If they come into your head, write them, but then break them down. Do not be afraid to repeat the subject twice, and stay away from too many pronouns and subordinate clauses.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“Vallet wrote of something else. Stimulated in some mysterious way by what he was saying, I made that connection myself and, and as I identified the idea with the text I was underlining, I attributed it to Vallet. And for more than twenty years I had been grateful to the old abbot for something he had never given me. I had produced the magic key on my own.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“If the book is yours and it does not have antiquarian value, do not hesitate to annotate it. Do not trust those who say that you must respect books. You respect books by using them, not leaving them alone. Even if the book is unmarked, you won’t make much money reselling it to a bookseller, so you may as well leave traces of your ownership.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“Accordingly, the choice between a literature review and a research thesis is linked to the student’s ability and maturity. And regrettably, it is often linked to financial factors, because a working student certainly has less time and energy to dedicate to long hours of research and trips to foreign research institutes or libraries, and often lacks money for the purchase of rare and expensive books and other resources.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“You respect books by using them, not leaving them alone.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“Begin new paragraphs often. Do so when logically necessary, and when the pace of the text requires it, but the more you do it, the better. Write everything that comes into your head, but only in the first draft.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“A classic, Italo Calvino wrote, is a work which relegates the noise of the present to a background hum - but without rendering that hum inaudible.”
― Francesco Erspamer, How to Write a Thesis

“the best ideas may not come from the major authors.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“Moving one's library to a new place always involves questions about one's future priorities …”
― Francesco Erspamer, How to Write a Thesis

“The third phase of the work plan is to draft the introduction. The draft should consist of an analytical commentary related to the table of contents: “With this work we propose to demonstrate this thesis. The previous research has left many questions unanswered, and the data gathered is still insufficient. In the first chapter, we will attempt to establish this point; in the second chapter we will tackle this other point. In conclusion, we will attempt to demonstrate a, b, and c. We have set these specific limits for the work. Within these limits, we will use the following method.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“A thesis may have as its “public” title “Radio Commentary and the Attempted Murder of Palmiro Togliatti,” but its subtitle (and its true topic) will be “Radio Commentators’ Use of Gino Bartali’s Tour de France Victory to Distract the Public from the Attempted Murder of Palmiro Togliatti.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“There are monochronic people and polychronic people. The monochronic succeed only if they work on one endeavor at a time. They cannot read while listening to music; they cannot interrupt a novel to begin another without losing the thread; at their worst, they are unable to have a conversation while they shave or put on their makeup. The polychronic are the exact opposite. They succeed only if they cultivate many interests simultaneously; if they dedicate themselves to only one venture, they fall prey to boredom. The monochronic are more methodical but often have little imagination. The polychronic seem more creative, but they are often messy and fickle. In the end, if you explore the biographies of great thinkers and writers, you will find that there were both polychronic and monochronic among them.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“A thesis studies an object by making use of specific instruments. Often the object is a book and the instruments are other books.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“There are three requirements for a six-month thesis: 1. The topic should be clearly defined. 2. The topic should be contemporary (notwithstanding the advice given in section 2.3), eliminating the need to explore a bibliography that goes back to the ancient Greeks. Alternatively, it should be a marginal subject on which little has been written. 3. The primary and secondary sources must be locally available and easily accessible.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“Finally, remember this fundamental principle: the more you narrow the field, the better and more safely you will work. Always prefer a monograph to a survey. It is better for your thesis to resemble an essay than a complete history or an encyclopedia.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“Wenn ein Buch euch gehört und keinen antiquarischen Wert hat, dann unterstreicht es ruhig. Glaubt denen nicht, die behaupten, man müsse die Bücher respektieren. Bücher respektiert man dadurch, daß man sie benutzt, nicht dadurch, daß man sie nicht anrührt. Auch wenn ihr sie antiquarisch verkauft, bekommt ihr nur einen Pappenstiel - da könnt ihr ruhig die Spuren eures Besitzes in ihnen hinterlassen.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis

“Vorsicht: Fotokopien können zum Alibi werden! Fotokopien sind ein unerläßliches Hilfsmittel, sei es, um einen in der Bibliothek schon gelesenen Text zur Verfügung zu haben, sei es, um einen noch nicht gelesenen Text mit nach Hause zu nehmen. Aber oft werden Fotokopien als Alibi verwendet. Man trägt hunderte von Fotokopien nach Hause, man hat ein Buch zur Hand gehabt und mit ihm etwas unternommen und glaubt darum, es gelesen zu haben. Der Besitz der Fotokopien erspart die Lektüre. Das passiert vielen. Eine Art Sammel-Rausch, ein Neo-Kapitalismus der Information. Setzt euch gegen die Fotokopie zur Wehr. Habt ihr sie, so lest sie sofort und verseht sie mit Anmerkungen. Seid ihr nicht unter Zeitdruck, dann fotokopiert nichts Neues, ohne euch die vorherige Fotokopie angeeignet zu haben (und das heißt: gelesen und mit vielen Anmerkungen versehen.) Es gibt vieles, was man gerade deshalb nicht weiß, weil man einen bestimmten Text fotokopiert hat; so hat man sich der Illusion hingegeben, man hätte ihn gelesen.”
― Umberto Eco, How to Write a Thesis