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Symbolism Quotes

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Symbolism Quotes

“The little boats cannot make much difference to the welfare of Gaza either way, since the materials being shipped are in such negligible quantity. The chief significance of the enterprise is therefore symbolic. And the symbolism, when examined even cursorily, doesn't seem too adorable. The intended beneficiary of the stunt is a ruling group with close ties to two of the most retrograde dictatorships in the Middle East, each of which has recently been up to its elbows in the blood of its own civilians. The same group also manages to maintain warm relations with, or at the very least to make cordial remarks about, both Hezbollah and al-Qaida. Meanwhile, a document that was once accurately described as a 'warrant for genocide' forms part of the declared political platform of the aforesaid group. There is something about this that fails to pass a smell test.”

PoliticsHuman RightsIsraelActivismGenocideMiddle EastDictatorshipPalestineAl QaedaSymbolismGazaHamasAntisemitismIsraeli Palestinian ConflictHezbollahGaza WarProtocols Of The Elders Of ZionFreedom Flotilla Ii
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books. It has always seemed to me that symbolism should be restored to the structure of world education. The young are no longer invited to seek the hidden truths, dynamic and eternal, locked within the shapes and behavior of living beings.”

WorldShouldBookYoungBecomingShapesBehaviorEternalStructureLibraryWanderTouchingLockedInvitedSymbolismHidden Truth
Author:Manly Hall
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“By the late Nineties, we had become a more visual nation. Big-money taste moved to global standards - new architecture, design and show-off contemporary art. The Sloane domestic aesthetic - symmetry, class symbolism and brown furniture - became as unfashionable as it had been hot in the early Eighties.”

ArtShowsBigsNationsClassDesignTasteLateStandardsHotMovedArchitectureContemporaryVisualsBrownAestheticFurnitureEightySymbolismShowing OffSymmetryContemporary ArtArchitecture Design
Author:Peter York
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“As to harmonizing the theory of evolution with the Biblical account of creation, I do not believe it can be done, and I do not see why it should be. The story of Genesis is beautiful, and profoundly significant as symbolism: there is no good reason to torture it into conformity with modern theory.”

ShouldBelieveReasonDoneStoriesBeautifulReligionModernCreationTheoryEvolutionAccountsSignificantTortureConformityBiblicalGenesisSymbolismTheory Of Evolution
Author:Will Durant
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“Good art means the ability of any one man to pin down in some permanent and intelligible medium a sort of idea of what he sees in Nature that nobody else sees. In other words, to make the other fellow grasp, through skilled selective care in interpretative reproduction or symbolism, some inkling of what only the artist himself could possibly see in the actual objective scene itself.”

MenMeanArtIdeasCareArtistAbilitySceneFellowsObjectivesMediumsPermanentOne ManPinsSymbolismReproductionGood ArtSelective
Author:H. P. Lovecraft
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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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“Ask yourself whether our language is complete--whether it was so before the symbolism of chemistry and the notation of the infinitesimal calculus were incorporated in it; for these are, so to speak, suburbs of our language. (And how many houses or streets does it take before a town begins to be a town?) Our language can be seen as an ancient city: a maze of little streets and squares, of old and new houses, and of houses with additions from various periods; and this surrounded by a multitude of new boroughs with straight regular streets and uniform houses.”

LittlesDoeAsksHouseSpeakLanguageCitiesStreetsPeriodsTownsAncientVariousChemistrySquaresUniformsMultitudesSuburbsSymbolismMazesCalculusOld And New
Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein
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“...I remembered the rose bush that had reached a thorny branch out through the ragged fence, and caught my dress, detaining me when I would have passed on. And again the symbolism of it all came over me. These memories and visions of the poor--they were the clutch of the thorns. Social workers have all felt it. It holds them to their work, because the thorns curve backward, and one cannot pull away.”

SocialFeltMemoriesPoorCompassionVisionDressesRoseWorkersCaughtRememberedBranchesFenceCurvesSocial WorkThornsSymbolismSocial WorkerClutchRaggedRose BushDetaining
Author:Albion Fellows Bacon
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“A symbol is indeed the only possible expression of some invisible essence, a transparent lamp about a spiritual flame; while allegory is one of many possible representations of an embodied thing, or familiar principle, and belongs to fancy and not to imagination: the one is a revelation, the other an amusement.”

SpiritualImaginationPrinciplesExpressionEssenceInvisibleFamiliarSymbolsFlamesFancyRevelationsRepresentationLampsAmusementTransparentSymbolismAllegory
Book:The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays
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“One of the biggest problems of mathematics is to explain to everyone else what it is all about. The technical trappings of the subject, its symbolism and formality, its baffling terminology, its apparent delight in lengthy calculations: these tend to obscure its real nature. A musician would be horrified if his art were to be summed up as "a lot of tadpoles drawn on a row of lines"; but that"s all that the untrained eye can see in a page of sheet music... In the same way, the symbolism of mathematics is merely its coded form, not its substance.”

IfsWayArtRealProblemWould BeEyeFormLinesSubjectsMusicianPagesMathematicsDelightMathSubstanceObscureSheetsCalculationsSymbolismTerminologyFormalityLengthyTadpolesSheet Music
Author:Ian Stewart
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“A line partakes of the simplicity of a point more than does a surface; and a surface [partakes thereof more] than does a material object-as was evident. From this consideration of a point and a material object elevate yourself unto a likeness of True Being and of the universe; and by means of [this] quite clear symbolism [of a point] make a conjecture about what has been said.”

MeanDoeHas BeensSaidUniverseLinesClearObjectsMaterialsSimplicitySurfaceConsiderationEvidentSymbolismConjecture
Author:Nicholas of Cusa
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“It is not strange that men of note and learning, attracted by the wealth of symbolism on Masonry, as well as by its spirit of fraternity perhaps, also by its secrecy began at an early date to ask to be accepted as members of the order; hence Accepted Masons. How far back the custom of admitting such men to the Lodge goes is not clear, but hints of it are discernable in the oldest documents of the order.”

MenWellsSpiritOrderAsksWealthClearStrangeMembersNotesAcceptedCustomsDocumentsSecrecyHintsSymbolismAdmittingFraternityMasonsLodgesMasonry
Book:The Builders - A Story & Study of Masonry
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“Symbolism is the language of the Mysteries. By symbols men have ever sought to communicate to each other those thoughts which transcend the limitations of language.”

MenLanguageMysteryCommunicateSymbolsLimitationSymbolism
Book:The Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy
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