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Symbolic Quotes

Browse 378 quotes about Symbolic.

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Symbolic Quotes

“The purpose of a fishing trip is not to catch fish. Bringing home meat is important, but it is more symbolic than necessary, as the new morality of catch-and-release has shown. What is important is what happens between people on fishing trips, especially between uncles and nephews, fathers and sons, old men in general and young boys in particular, it is one of the few times men are together without women.”

PeopleMenImportantHomeHappensTogetherYoungPurposeFatherBoysSeaParticularSonMoralityRiversFishesBoatReleaseMeatLakesFishingOld ManUnclesSymbolicFather And SonNephew
Author:Paul G. Quinnett
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“It is quite likely ... that the central figure of the gospels is not based on any historical individual. Put simply, not only is the theological "Christ of faith" a synthetic construct of theologians, a symbolic "Uncle Sam" figure, but if you could travel ... back to First-Century Nazareth, you would not find a Jesus living there.”

IfsFirstsJesusIndividualChristAtheismCenturyFiguresHistoricalPositive AtheismUnclesConstructsTheologianSymbolicTheologicalSyntheticNazarethUncle Sam
Author:Robert M. Price
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“Where hunger is imposed by external circumstances, the act of starvation remains literal, a tragic biological event that does not serve metaphoric or symbolic purposes. It is only in a country where one is able to choose hunger that elective starvation may come to express cultural conflict or even social protest.”

MayDoeCountryAblePurposeSocialEventsCircumstancesConflictEatingRemainsHungerTragicProtestSymbolicLiteralStarvationMetaphoric
Book:The obsession: reflections on the tyranny of slenderness
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“I find it interesting to see people - mostly people who are younger than I am - going to considerable trouble to try to reproduce things from an era that was far more physical, from a less virtual day. That fascinates me, because it seems to be symbolic of something going on in the culture itself, and I also have a sort of innate admiration for the stubbornness it requires to actually make those things physically. It's become incredibly difficult. In North America, we've largely forgotten how to do it.”

PeopleTryingSeemsAmericaCultureDifficultInterestingTroubleForgottenErasAdmirationInnateSymbolicNorth AmericaStubbornness
Author:William Gibson
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“Evolving Culture, Reality, as we perceive it, is largely shaped by the artifacts, both material and symbolic, of thought, thought that leads to creative manifestation in form and color. With that in mind, it might be suggested that the visual artist, - from commercial designer to fine art painter - has much to do with most things that enter your everyday visuals, and thus form a major portion of one's reality and, certainly, how this culture manifests and evolves.”

MindArtRealityMightFormArtistCultureCreativeColorMaterialsFineMajorsEverydayPainterEvolvePerceiveManifestationDesignerVisualsPortionsSymbolicFine ArtsVisual ArtArtifactsVisual Artist
Author:Robert Venosa
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“So much has to do with going beyond treating black people as cosmetic and symbolic items, as opposed to genuine personalities and human beings. And that is a deep moral and spiritual issue, which can of course be backed up by Civil Rights Commissions which enforce the laws against any form of discrimination.”

PeopleHumansSpiritualFormLawCoursesBlackHuman BeingsMoralIssuesRightsPersonalityGenuineDiscriminationCivil RightsBlack PeopleItemsSymbolicCosmetics
Author:Cornel West
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“Chauvet Cave is rather like the awakening of the modern human soul or I would say the awakening of modern human culture. Because Neanderthal men who still rode the landscape parallel to the people who did these paintings didn't have culture. There's no evidence of culture, no symbolic depiction, no evidence of music, no evidence of sculptures, no evidence of religious beliefs.”

PeopleMenHumansStillsSoulCultureBeliefReligiousModernPaintingEvidenceAwakeningLandscapeCavesSculptureParallelsHuman SoulSymbolicReligious BeliefDepictionNeanderthals
Author:Werner Herzog
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“I find it profoundly symbolic that I am appearing before a committee of fifteen men who will report to a legislative body of one hundred men because of a decision handed down by a court comprised of nine men--on an issue that affects millions of women.... I have the feeling that if men could get pregnant, we wouldn't be struggling for this legislation. If men could get pregnant, maternity benefits would be as sacrosanct as the G.I. Bill.”

IfsMenFeelingsBodyWould BeWomenDecisionMillionsStruggleIssuesBenefitsHundredBillsCourtNineReportsPregnantFifteenCommitteesLegislationSymbolicAppearingMaternity
Author:Letty Cottin Pogrebin
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“What distinguished man from animals was the human capacity for symbolic thought, the capacity which was inseparable from the development of language in which words were not mere signals, but signifiers of something other than themselves. Yet the first symbols were animals. What distinguished men from animals was born of their relationship with them.”

MenFirstsHumansLanguageBornAnimalDevelopmentCapacityMereSymbolsHumankindSignalsDistinguishedSymbolicInseparableHuman Capacity
Book:About Looking
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“Artists, whatever their medium, make selections from the abounding materials of life, and organize these selections into works that are under the control of the artist.... In relation to the inclusiveness and literally endless intricacy of life, art is arbitrary, symbolic and abstracted. That is its value and the source of its own kind of order and coherence.”

LifeKindArtArtistValuesOrderMaterialsSourceArt IsRelationEndlessMediumsOrganizeSelectionArbitrarySymbolicCoherenceIntricacyInclusiveness
Author:Jane Jacobs
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“Computer mediation seems to bathe action in a more conditional light: perhaps it happened; perhaps it didn't. Without the layeredrichness of direct sensory engagement, the symbolic medium seems thin, flat, and fragile.”

RealityLightSeemsActionHappenedComputerDirectMediumsFlatsFragileEngagementRealismSymbolicSensoryMediationConditional
Book:In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power
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“In America most orthodox Christians become defensive or testy when they are asked even to break into a sweat. Most of our efforts up until now have been more symbolic than anything else. We are great at holding conventions, gathering for strategy meetings and seminars, holding congresses on evangelism. But where are the people to run our own antidefamation league?”

PeopleHas BeensRunningChristianAmericaReligiousEffortBreakStrategyMeetingsCongressLeagueOrthodoxSweatConventionsGatheringSymbolicEvangelismOrthodox ChristianSeminars
Book:Book burning
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“We think of religion as the symbolic expression of our highest moral ideals; we think of magic as a crude aggregate of superstitions. Religious belief seems to become mere superstitious credulity if we admit any relationship with magic. On the other hand our anthropological and ethnographical material makes it extremely difficult to separate the two fields.”

IfsThinkingTwoHandsSeemsReligionBeliefDifficultReligiousMoralMagicFieldsExpressionMaterialsHighestIdealsMereSuperstitionsSymbolicCrudeReligious BeliefSuperstitiousCredulity
Book:An essay on man: an introduction to a philosophy of human culture
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“In response to the escalating violence in Iraq, President Bush is delaying the return home of 25,000 troops and will actually add reinforcements to the south. Then in a symbolic gesture he pulled down the mission accomplished banner, put on a flight suit, walked backwards to a jet fighter and flew it in reverse off an aircraft carrier.”

HomePresidentViolenceReturnAddSouthResponseIraqMissionsFlightSuitsFighterAccomplishedGesturesTroopsReverseBackwardsPresident BushSymbolicFlewJetBannerAircraftCarrierReinforcementEscalatingAircraft CarriersMission Accomplished
Author:Tina Fey
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“Ancient traditions have long associated holy wells and springs as very special places of the Goddess or anima mundi: symbolic of the Great Mother and associated with birth, the feminine principle, the universal womb, the prima materia, the waters of fertility and refreshment and the fountain of life. The dreaming sites, as they are called, have also been associated with visions, healing, and other paranormal experiences. In ancient Greece, for example, there were more than three-hundred medical centers placed at water sources, where patients experienced healing.”

LifeWellsLongDreamMotherThreeWaterHealingVisionPrinciplesSpecialExampleSourceBirthHolySpringHundredRainTraditionRiversUniversalPatientAncientMedicalParanormalFeminineGoddessSiteFountainWombGreeceSymbolicSpecial PlacesFertilityAncient GreeceRefreshmentsGreat Mother
Author:Christopher McDowell
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“Who is telling us about the false self today? Who is even equipped tell us? Many clergy have not figured this out for themselves, since even ministry can be a career decision or an attraction to "religion" more than the result of an encounter with God or themselves. Formal religious status can maintain the false self rather effectively, especially if there are a lot of social payoffs like special respect, titles, salaries, a good self image, or nice costumes. It is no accident that the religious "Pharisees" became the symbolic bad guys in the Jesus story.”

IfsSelfStoriesTodayGuyJesusSocialReligiousDecisionResultsCareersNiceSpecialAccidentsAttractionTitlesEncountersMinistryFormalCostumesBad GuysSalarySymbolicClergyPayoffPharisees
Book:Immortal Diamond: The search for our true self
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“After world war all we got was a lot of conformity, and conservatism and when I was in college at the university of Illinois the skirt lengths dropped instead of going up as they had during the roaring twenties and I knew that was a very bad sign, and it is symbolic and reflective of a very repressive time, and some of that was laid the feet of the cold war.”

WorldWarFeetCollegeColdTwentiesUniversityWar Of The WorldsLengthConformityCold WarConservatismSymbolicSkirtsRoaringIllinoisRoaring Twenties
Author:Hugh Hefner
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“Much more than an entertaining set of exaggerated facts, fiction is a metaphoric method of describing, dramatizing and condensing historical events, personal actions, psychological states and the symbolic knowledge encoded within the collective unconscious; things, events and conditions that are otherwise too diffuse and/or complex to be completely digested or appreciated by the prevailing culture.”

StatesFactsActionCultureFictionConditionsEventsMethodHistoricalComplexesPsychologicalUnconsciousCollectivesEntertainingAppreciatedSymbolicDescribingExaggeratedPrevailingCollective UnconsciousHistorical EventsMetaphoric
Author:Tom Robbins
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“When we approach legal reform work, we can ask questions like: Will this provide actual relief to people facing violence or harm or will it primarily be a symbolic change? Will this divide our constituency by offering relief only to people with certain privileged statuses (such as people with lawful immigration status, people with jobs, married people, etc.)?”

PeopleJobsCertainAsksViolenceApproachMarriedHarmImmigrationReformReliefEtcDividesOfferingPrivilegedSymbolic
Author:Dean Spade
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