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Symbolic Quotes

Browse 378 quotes about Symbolic.

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Symbolic Quotes

“What are you trying to tell me?" she repeated, picking up the little clover stem from the edge of her plate and twirling it between her fingers. She thought of what Star had told her about her gift, that she brought clarity to people with her cooking. Would it work for her? Could she bring clarity to her own heart? On impulse, she pulled off the four leaves of the clover and sprinkled them over the omelet. Why not give it a try? Clover was edible, with a slightly lemony flavor. Not a terribly appealing plant to eat, but tolerable in small quantities. "Today I ask for faith, hope, love, and luck," she whispered, not at all sure this was going to work. "Please show me what I need to see." As she spoke the words, she realized she was not petitioning Julia but speaking to the island, to the Stevens women--- Star and Emma and Helen--- and to her own heart. She didn't know who or what was sending her these signs in the form of four-leaf clovers. Perhaps it was the island as Star suspected, or the universe, or Emma and Helen. The origin was a mystery, and in a way, the source didn't really matter. She just wanted to know what it all meant. What were the four-leaf clovers trying to reveal to her?”

ClaritySymbolicRecipeCharmed LifeFour Leaf CloverFamily Legacy
Book:Recipe for a Charmed Life
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“I grabbed one of the plants he had given me and shoved it into his hands. "Take it. I killed it. Just like you killed our relationship by never being there when I needed you. Just like you killed it again by asking me to meet you so you could get your revenge. Good-bye." "It's not dead," he pointed out. "It just needs a little love." "Then give it to Clare." "She's not a loving type. She's an evil, using, betraying, double-crossing type. Not like you, sweetheart." "Don't sweetheart me," I snapped. "Your fake seduction won't work here. Clearly, the only thing that is a danger to me is you.”

SymbolicPlantsVerbal SaltRelationship Drama
Book:'Til Heist Do Us Part
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“He clasped the amulet around her neck. "It's only a symbol," she said in a drowsy kind of way. "Only a symbol of the power inside me." "Then feel that power," Veto urged. She glanced at him. It was too late. But as she continued to stare into Veto's fading eyes something happened. She realized instinctively that the real power had always been inside her. It was something no one could steal from her. She could feel the energy building, pulsing through her like a jaguar in the night. Her gift of premonition and the amulet were only symbols. She understood now that Maggie had wanted her to realize this for herself; she had never stopped being a Daughter of the Moon. If Maggie had simply told her that she had the ability to stand against evil without using violence, or her gift, then she never would have found the self-confidence and faith that she felt rising in her now.”

GoddessSymbolicInner PowerJimena Castillo
Book:Night Shade
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“The more I read, the more I felt my understanding of the universe slip away from me. Columbine symbolized both 'desertion' and 'folly'; poppy, 'imagination' and 'extravagance'. The almond blossom, listed as 'indiscretion' in Elizabeth's dictionary, appeared in others as 'hope' and occasionally 'thoughtlessness'. The definitions were not only different, they were often contradictory. Even common thistle- the staple of my communication- appeared as 'misanthropy' only when it wasn't defined as 'austerity'.”

DifferentSymbolicMeaningsLanguage Of Flowers
Book:The Language of Flowers
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“She brushed the goat away and slipped off the shirt, revealing a black ribbed tank top underneath. It put the flower garden climbing up her arm and spreading across her shoulder on full display. She'd gotten the tattoos one at a time, one or two a year, ever since her meltdown. Each one stood for something specific in the language of flowers. A white chrysanthemum bloomed on the inside of her wrist for truth. A fern frond arched across her inner arm for sincerity. Delicate yellow sprigs of rue traced their way up her bicep for grace and clarity. A pink rose for happiness peeked from her shoulder blade. Together they symbolized a woman who was discovering her true path in life, uncovering her authentic self on the journey.”

SymbolicTattoosLanguage Of Flowers
Book:The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie
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“There was one my dad told me, setting down the book, since he knew the story by heart, about a fairy queen who lived in the center of the marsh. She was both beautiful and terrible, angry at times and kind at others, and rarely seen by mortals. Mostly she took the form of a great blue heron, surveying her kingdom and all the creatures in it. She disdained most humans, except those she helped make the passage into the next world. But if a living person had a sincere wish and she deemed it noble, she would rise up out of the swamp in her true form, with her Spanish-moss hair and her eyes like the sharpest sunbeams, and she would ask the human to perform a nearly impossible task. If they did, she would grant the wish.”

BlueSymbolicFairytaleQueenForeshadowingBook TitleMarshHeronMarsh Queen
Book:The Marsh Queen
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“Woman, then, stands in patriarchal culture as a signifier for the male other, bound by a symbolic order in which man can live out his fantasies and obsessions through linguistic command by imposing them on the silent image of a woman still tied to her place as the bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning.”

MenStillsOrderCultureFantasySilentMalesBoundsObsessionCommandMakersTiedSymbolicImposing
Book:Visual and Other Pleasures
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“Grandeur . . . consists in form, and not in size: and to the eye of the philosopher, the curve drawn on a paper two inches long, is just as magnificent, just as symbolic of divine mysteries and melodies, as when embodied in the span of some cathedral roof.”

LongTwoEyeFormMysteryDivinePaperSizePhilosopherArchitectureMelodyInchesRoofMagnificentCurvesSymbolicGrandeurCathedrals
Book:Sir Walter Raleigh and His Time, with Other Papers
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“There are clear differences between child and adult artistic activity. While the child may be aware that he is doing things differently from others, he does not fully appreciate the rules and conventions of symbolic realms; his adventurousness holds little significance. In contrast, the adult artist is fully cognizant of the norms embraced by others; his willingness, his compulsion, to reject convention is purchased, at the very least, with full knowledge of what he is doing and often at considerable psychic cost to himself.”

MayChildrenLittlesDoeArtistDifferencesClearCostActivityAdultsAppreciateArtisticRealmsRejectsSignificanceWillingnessConventionsContrastPsychicsNormCompulsionSymbolicCognizant
Book:Art, mind, and brain: a cognitive approach to creativity
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“Putting gloves on the fighters was a symbolic change that suggested that we were now making it a civilized sport, and it was no longer this crazy gladiatorial throwback to ancient Rome. It's even in our language: If you want to get serious and violent, what do you do? You "take the gloves off." Bare-fisted is supposedly a much more dangerous way to hit someone. But we've got it completely backward. The glove is a weapon. It massively accentuates the ability of the fist to do harm.”

IfsWayWantLanguageSportsAbilityCrazyDangerousSeriousWeaponsAncientHarmViolentFighterCivilizedRomeFistsSymbolicGlovesAncient RomeAccentuateThrowback
Author:Jonathan Gottschall
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“In the case of drama (stage, movies, television ), there appear to be people in almost every audience who never quite fully realize that a play is a set of fictional, symbolic representations. An actor is one who symbolizes other people, real or imagined. [...] Also some years ago it was reported that when Edward G. Robinson, who used to play gangster roles with extraordinary vividness, visited Chicago, local hoodlums would telephone him at his hotel to pay their professional respects.”

PeopleYearsRealPlayUsedActorsRealizingPayRolesCasesAudienceStageTelevisionDramaYears AgoExtraordinaryLocalsHotelChicagoRepresentationTelephonesNever QuitSymbolicGangstersVividness
Author:S. I. Hayakawa
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“All art that is not mere storytelling, or mere portraiture, is symbolic, and has the purpose of those symbolic talismans which medieval magicians made with complex colours and forms, and bade their patients ponder over daily, and guard with holy secrecy; for it entangles, in complex colours and forms, a part of the Divine Essence.”

ArtMadeFormPurposeDivineHolyEssenceMereComplexesPatientStorytellingColourMagicianSecrecyMedievalSymbolicPonderingPortraitureTalismans
Author:William Butler Yeats
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“In early childhood, children develop a set of symbols that 'stand for' things they see in the world around them... Children are happy with symbolic drawing until about the age of eight or nine... when children develop a passion for realism. Our schools do not provide drawing instruction. Children try on their own to discover the secrets of realistic drawing, but nearly always fail and, sadly, give up on trying.”

WorldGivingTryingChildrenAgeSchoolPassionSecretFailingChildhoodGiving UpEightDrawingNineSymbolsRealisticInstructionRealismSymbolicEarly Childhood
Author:Betty Edwards
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“I hate symbolic art in which the presentation loses all spontaneous movement in order to become a machine, an allegory -- a vain and misconceived effort because the very fact of giving an allegorical sense to a presentation clearly shows that we have to do with a fable which by itself has no truth either fantastic or direct; it was made for the demonstration of some moral truth.”

GivingArtMadeFactsShowsHateOrderLosesEffortMoralMovementDirectMachinesI HateFantasticVainSpontaneousPresentationDemonstrationSymbolicFablesAllegory
Author:Luigi Pirandello
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“Ancient portraits are symbolic images without any immediate relation to the individuals represented; they are not portraits as we understand them. It is remarkable that philologists who are capable of carrying accuracy to the extremes in the case of words are as credulous as babies when it comes to "images," and yet an image is so full of information that ten thousands words would not add up to it.”

IndividualCasesInformationBabyTenCapableRelationAddAncientExtremesRemarkablePortraitsSymbolicAccuracy
Author:George Sarton
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“I don't have a favorite cooking tool. In the kitchen, I always have my pencil and notebook in my hand. I cook more theoretically than I do practically. My job is creative, and in the kitchen, the biggest part of my creativity is theoretical. The pencil has a symbolic meaning for me. The type of person who carries a pencil around is the type of person who's open to change. Someone who walks around with a pen isn't; he's the opposite.”

PersonsHandsJobsWalksCreativityCreativeTypeToolsOppositesCookingCooksKitchenCarriePensPencilsTheoreticalSymbolicNotebookSymbolic Meaning
Author:Ferran Adria
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“The fifth and by far the most important reason is that stoning is literally a means of crushing the murderer's head by means of a rock, which is symbolic of God. This is analogous to the crushing of the head of the serpent in Genesis 3:15. This symbolism testifies to the final victory of God over all the hosts of Satan. Stoning is therefore integral to the commandment against murder.”

MeanImportantReasonRocksVictoryMurderFinalsSatanCrushHostCommandmentsMurdererFifthSymbolicGenesisSymbolismSerpent
Author:Gary North
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