Bodei pursues the distinction between objects and things, whereby things are what we have made an emotional investment in, while objects are simply the opposite of subjects. Still lifes, to which Bodei devotes some of the most beautiful pages of this book, are the maximum expression of transience. While objects triumph over death, subjects do not, unless they are embalmed, becoming objects immune to time. Maurizio Ferraris, Il Sole 24 Ore

There is something exceptional and surprising about this book, even if it begins with an observation that everyone at a certain point in their life has made: things live within us but also have their own life independent of us. Bodei tackles and resolves a series of thorny issues that often get entangled in our mind and thoughts. Eugenio Scalfari, L'espresso

Simple things. Plain objects, brand new or already used, intact or consumed, in any event destined for insignificance and destruction. Is this the fate of things? Or does another view of them exist, capable in some way of delivering them from an anonymous and inert destiny? This is the searching and original question asked by Remo Bodei in this book. Roberto Esposito, La Repubblica