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symbol quotes

  • Possibly the symbol for America is the Frontier† The corresponding symbol for England is the Island† The central symbol for Canada†is undoubtedly Survival, la Survivance.

    - Margaret Eleanor Atwood
      Survival: a Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, ch.1, 'Survival'.

  • The fancy of the mass of men is incredibly weak; it can see nothing without a visible symbol, and there is much that it can scarcely make out with a symbol.

    -Walter Bagehot
      The English Constitution, ch.4,'The House of Lords'.

  •    Science is the reduction of the bewildering diversity of unique events to manageable uniformity within one of a number of symbol systems, and technology is the art of using thesesymbol systemssoastocontrol and organize unique events. Scientific observation is always a viewing of things through the refracting medium of a symbol system, and technological praxis is always handling of things in ways that some symbol system has dictated. Education in science and technology is essentially education on the symbol level.

    - Aldous Leonard Huxley
      In Daedalus, spring issue.

  • A conjuring trick with bones only proves that it is as clever as a conjuring trick with bones† A resuscitated corpse might be a resuscitated corpse and might be the sign of something, butthere isstill the questionof what it is the symbol of.

    - David Edward Jenkins
      Of the Christian doctrine of Christ's physical resurrection. 'Poles  Apart', BBC radio broadcast, 4 Oct.

  • It is a symbol of Irish art. The cracked looking-glass of a servant.

    -James Augustine Aloysius Joyce
      Ulysses.

  • The exchange rate is onlya statistic, not a symbol of national honor and virility.

    - Paul R Krugman
      Quoted in the NewYork Times, 26  Jun.

  • Nothing has conduced more to shake that decent respect for the living symbol of thestatethat goes by the name of royalty than the ever-recurring rattle of the money box.

    - Henry Du Pre Labouche'  re
      In the Fortnightly Review, Feb.

  • In China the bat is a symbol of happiness Not for me!

    - D(avid) H(erbert) Lawrence
      'Bat'.

  • The silver-haired, pipe-smoking northerner was a consummate British politician: tenacious, shrewd, manipulative, a blend of homespun tastes, acid wit and pragmatic, often shifting policies†the symbol of an emerging middle-class Briton. McGonagall

    - Robert D(ennis) McFadden
      Of Harold Wilson. In the NewYork Times, 25 May.

  • O to be a dragon, a symbol of the power of Heavenof silkworm size or immense; at times invisible. Felicitous phenomenon!

    - Marianne Craig Moore
      O  To Be A Dragon,'O  To Be  A Dragon'.

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2010 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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