Symbolic Quotes
More Symbolic Quotes
Roots is not just a saga of my family. It is the symbolic saga of a people.
alex haley— A plausible statement, but no published source as yet located for it prior to 2007, and though most cite Haley as the author the earliest of these cites it with an obscure attribution to "Benhur R".
LISP is now the second oldest programming language in present widespread use (after FORTRAN)... Its core occupies some kind of local optimum in the space of programming languages given that static friction discourages purely notational changes. Recursive use of conditional expressions, representation of symbolic information externally by lists and internally by list structure, and representation of program in the same way will probably have a very long life.
john mccarthy— John McCarthy (1979) "History of Lisp," as quoted in: Avron Barr, Edward Feigenbaum. The Handbook of artificial intelligence, Volume 2. Addison-Wesley, 1986. p. 5
Mass, time, magnetic moment, the unconscious: we have grown up with these symbolic concepts, so that we are startled to be told that man had once to create them for himself. He had indeed, and he has: for mass is not an intuition in the muscle, and time is not bought ready-made at the watchmaker's.
jacob bronowski— Science and Human Values, Part 2: "The Habit of Truth", §5 (1956, 1965, p. 35)
There haven’t been fundamental structural changes in America. There’s been a very important symbolic change and that is the election of Barack Obama. But the only black people who truly live in a post-racial world in America all live in a very nice house on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
— Interview with The Root, July 21, 2009.
Pantagruel was telling me that he believed the queen had given the symbolic word used among her subjects to denote sovereign good cheer, when she said to her tabachins, A panacea.
françois rabelais— Chapter 20 : How the Quintessence cured the sick with a song
Surely that little pseudo-gothic church on Broadway, hidden amongst the skyscrapers, is symbolic of the age! On the whole face of the globe the civilization that has conquered it has failed to build a temple or a tomb.
andré malraux— Part IV, Chapter I
The trouble with "sacrifices as symbolic acts" is that the immediate impact on those for whom the sacrifice is made quickly fades, while the impact on those who actually make the sacrifice can go on and on.
preston manning— Chapter Fourteen, Conflict and Consolidation, p. 255
I detest symbolic protest, as it is an outcry of weak, middle-of-the-road, liberal eunuchs. If an individual feels strongly enough about something to do something about it, then he shouldn't prostitute himself by doing something symbolic. He should get out and do something real.
william powell— Chapter Two: "Electronics, Sabotage, and Surveillance", P.62
I wished to go completely outside and to make a symbolic start for my enterprise of regenerating the life of human kind within the body of society and to prepare a positive future in this context... I can see such a use for the future as representing the really progressive character of the idea of understanding art when it is related to the life of humankind within the social body in the future.
joseph beuys— In; Studio International. Vol. 195, (9181), p. 46
I am hopeful that Antarctica in its symbolic robe of white will shine forth as a continent of peace as nations working together there in the cause of science set an example of international cooperation.
richard e. byrd— Statement made during International Geophysical Year (IGY) operations in 1957, inscribed on the Byrd Memorial at McMurdo Station, Antartica
Nothing is harder to understand than a symbolic work. A symbol always transcends the one who makes use of it and makes him say in reality more than he is aware of expressing.
Albert Camus— "Hope and the Absurd in the work of Franz Kafka"
This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine.... We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.
neville chamberlain— Speech at Heston Airport (30 September 1938), quoted in The Times (1 October 1938) Oxford Book of Modern Quotes(pdf)
We humans are an extremely important manifestation of the replication bomb, because it is through us – through our brains, our symbolic culture and our technology – that the explosion may proceed to the next stage and reverberate through deep space.
Richard Dawkins— Ch. 5: The Replication Bomb
In the elemental emotions of fear and rage associated with the most primitive parts of the brain, this swift response without conscious intervention or direction is a condition of survival: but something more than survival comes forth from it; for this very automatism freed the growing brain and ramifying nervous system for more important services, detached from the immediate pressure for survival, performed by the new brain. Here by his conscious symbolic activities man created a second realm that conforms more closely to his higher personal and social needs.
Lewis Mumford— pg 397 (The Pentagon of Power (1970))
When that amusing "Pauli effect" of the overturned vase occurred, on the occasion of the founding of the Jung Institute, I had the immediate and vivid impression that I should " pour out water inside " ( to use the symbolic language that I have acquired from you). Then when the connection between psychology and physics took up a relatively large part of your talk, it became even more clear to me what I was to do. The outcome of all this is the enclosed essay.
wolfgang pauli— Letter to Carl Jung (16 June 1948), referring to an incident where a vase fell over, apparently spontaneously as he entered a room, and an essay: Moderne Beispiele zur 'Hintergrunds-physik' (Modern Examples of 'Background Physics' ). Jung and Pauli worked together in developing theories of Synchronicity.
When one analyzes the pre-conscious step to concepts, one always finds ideas which consist of "symbolic images." The first step to thinking is a painted vision of these inner pictures whose origin cannot be reduced only and firstly to the sensual perception but which are produced by an 'instinct to imagining' and which are re-produced by different individuals independently, i.e. collectively... But the archaic image is also the necessary predisposition and the source of a scientific attitude. To a total recognition belong also those images out of which have grown the rational concepts.
wolfgang pauli— Letter to Markus Fierz (1948)
“The protections offered to private landowners are a lot like having the French on your side in war – largely symbolic."
david a. ridenour— National Center for Public Policy Research press release, July 26, 2005.Referring to the initial draft of an Endangered Species Act reform bill.
If being an anti-art artist is difficult, being an anti-art art historian is a hard position indeed. His doctrinal revolutionism brings forth nothing new in art but reenacts upheavals on the symbolic plane of language. It provides the consoling belief that overthrows are occurring as in the past, that barriers to creation are being surmounted, and that art is pursuing a radical purpose, even if it is only the purpose of doing away with itself.
Harold Rosenberg— "What's New: Ritual Revolution" (p. 260)
A labyrinth is a symbolic journey … but it is a map we can really walk on, blurring the difference between map and world.
— Rebecca Solnit, in Wanderlust: A History of Walking (2000)
New York is symbolic for the pride of mankind.
— Cevat Yerli, CEO and President and Crytek, on why Crysis 2 was set in New York City. [1].
You can't really measure the effect of this kind of resistance in whether or not X number of bridges were blown up or a regime fell... The White Rose really has a more symbolic value, but that's a very important value.
— Jud Newborn speaking of the Nazi-era German resistance group White Rose in Newsday (22 February 1993).
In Greece and a number of other countries it is customary to eat something on Good Friday to which vinegar is added, in memory of the vinegar that Christ was offered on the cross. To this good soup the vinegar adds a symbolic touch… Unlike [today] Good Friday, when it is to be found throughout Lent , the Hot Cross Bun was originally eaten only on Good Friday.
— Evelyn Birge Vitz (1991), in A Continual Feast: A Cookbook to Celebrate the Joys of Family and Faith ..., p.190
The aphorism is a mode of symbolic representation that belongs to an era dominated by highly individualized and introverted experience, atomistic thought and feelings, an absence of commonly accepted religious beliefs and moral standards and the general disintegration of traditional culture.
— Dalibor Vesely (2004), Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation, p. 346
The whole tendency of empiricism and democracy in speech, dress and manners has been toward a plainness which is without symbolic significance. The power of symbolism is greatly feared by those who wish to expel from life all that is nonrational in the sense of being nonutilitarian
— Richard Weaver (1948) Ideas have Consequences. p. 160
Teachers have three main tasks: first, to train both hemispheres not only the verbal, symbolic, logical left hemisphere, which has always been trained in the traditional education, but also the relational, holistic right hemisphere, which is largely neglected in today's schools; second, to train students to use the cognitive style suited to the tasks at hand; and third, to train students to be able to bring both styles both hemispheres to bear on a problem in an integrated manner.
— Betty Edwards (1979) The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
You can't really measure the effect of this kind of resistance in whether or not X number of bridges were blown up or a regime fell... The White Rose really has a more symbolic value , but that's a very important value.
— Jud Newborn in Newsday (22 February 1993)
A symbol is always in general and, however precise its translation, an artist can restore to it only its movement: there is no word-for-word rendering. Moreover, nothing is harder to understand than a symbolic work. A symbol always transcends the one who makes use of it and makes him say in reality more than he is aware of expressing.
— Appendix: Hope and the Absurd in the work of Franz Kafka
In parts of Christian world , All Souls Day is celebrated by making complete meals for the dead , reflecting their preferences in life , and laid out on a table overnight. All of these symbolic food acts or ritual meals serve to maintain and ensure good relations between family and friends, the living and the dead.
— B. W. Higman, in How Food Made History, (8 August 2011)], p.1926
A symbol is always in general and, however precise its translation, an artist can restore to it only its movement: there is no word -for-word rendering. Moreover, nothing is harder to understand than a symbolic work. A symbol always transcends the one who makes use of it and makes him say in reality more than he is aware of expressing.
— Albert Camus, in The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Appendix: Hope and the Absurd in the work of Franz Kafka
