Symbolic Quotes - Page 14

Man's achievements rest upon the use of symbols.... we must consider ourselves as a symbolic, semantic class of life, and those who rule the symbols, rule us.

Alfred Korzybski

Men, Class, Use

Alfred Korzybski (1958). “Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics”, p.76, Institute of GS

33 Copy quote

Show source
Have you considered that the Bible, like all religious doctrine, may be allegorical and symbolic, to direct us toward one holy entity of love, as opposed to a simplistic litiginous text to direct the behavior of human beings?

Russell Brand

Religious, Doctrine, May

"Russell Brand Surprises Westboro Baptist Church With Gay Men on His FX Show" by Jordan Zakarin, www.hollywoodreporter.com. November 20, 2012.

10 Copy quote

Show source
But what Freud showed us… was that nothing can be grasped, destroyed, or burnt, except in a symbolic way, as one says, in effigie, in absentia.

Jacques Lacan

Way, Destroyed

Jacques Lacan (2004). “The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis”, p.75, Karnac Books

50 Copy quote

Show source
As an artist I would like to eliminate the symbolic pretty much, for black is interesting not as a color but as a non-color and as the absence of color.

Ad Reinhardt

Artist, Color, Interesting

Ad Reinhardt, Barbara Rose (1991). “Art-as-art: The Selected Writings of Ad Reinhardt”, p.86, Univ of California Press

20 Copy quote

Show source
Play permits the child to resolve in symbolic form unsolved problems of the past and to cope directly or symbolically with present concerns. It is also his most significant tool for preparing himself for the future and its tasks.

Bruno Bettelheim

Children, Past, Play

38 Copy quote
We keep thinking of deity as a kind of fact, somewhere; God as a fact. God is simply our own notion of something that is symbolic of transcendence and mystery. The mystery is what’s important.

Joseph Campbell

Thinking, Important, Facts

11 Copy quote
In the depths of the mirror the evening landscape moved by, the mirror and the reflected figures like motion pictures superimposed one on the other. The figures and the background were unrelated, and yet the figures, transparent and intangible, and the background, dim in the gathering darkness, melted into a sort of symbolic world not of this world. Particularly when a light out in the mountains shone in the center of the girl's face, Shimamura felt his chest rise at the inexpressible beauty of it.

Yasunari Kawabata

Girl, Mirrors, Light

"Snow Country". Book by Yasunari Kawabata, 1948.

37 Copy quote

Show source