Signifying Quotes

• Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow.

  William Shakespeare

  Futility Of Life, Play, Life And Death

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 16

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• The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

  Alvin Toffler

  Inspirational, Change, Positive

  "Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock, dies aged 87". www.theguardian.com. June 29, 2016.

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• Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

  William Shakespeare

  Time, Futility Of Life, Lady Macbeth

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 16

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• A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere.

  Groucho Marx

  Inspirational, Funny, Cat

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• Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Peace, Military, War

  Speech to American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, D.C., 16 Apr. 1953

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• Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 16

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• In other words, all of my books are lies. They are simply maps of a territory, shadows of a reality, gray symbols dragging their bellies across the dead page, suffocated signs full of muffled sound and faded glory, signifying absolutely nothing. And it is the nothing, the Mystery, the Emptiness alone that needs to be realized: not known but felt, not thought but breathed, not an object but an atmosphere, not a lesson but a life.

  Ken Wilber

  Lying, Book, Reality

  Ken Wilber (2004). “The Simple Feeling of Being: Visionary, Spiritual, and Poetic Writings”, p.141, Shambhala Publications

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• The medium of poetry is a human body: the column of air inside the chest, shaped into signifying sounds in the larynx and the mouth. In this sense, poetry is just as physical or bodily an art as dancing.

  Robert Pinsky

  Art, Air, Dancing

  Robert Pinsky (2014). “The Sounds of Poetry: A Brief Guide”, p.8, Macmillan

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• There Adam slept, and God formed the body of woman from one of his ribs, signifying that she should stand at his side as a companion and never lie at his feet like a slave, and also that he should love her as his own flesh.

  Christine de Pizan

  Lying, Feet, Ribs

  Christine De Pizan (1982). “The Book of the City of Ladies”, New York : Persea Books

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• Again, a smooth answer, signifying nothing.

  Euripides

  Answers, Smooth

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• Don't tell me about heaven. What about in this life, that there is a better way, that this is not in vain, that it is not Edward Albee or Camus's absurd, the theater of the absurd, it is not Shakespeare - "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" - that life has meaning and that God is still in control, and that God can, and God will, so people of goodwill, working hard, do something about the situation? We can change.

  Jeremiah Wright

  People, Heaven, Sound

  "Jeremiah Wright on Obama, Religion and Racism". Interview with Bill Moyers, billmoyers.com. April 25, 2008.

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• I thought Marcus was going to be in my life forever. Then I thought I was wrong. Now he’s back. But this time I know what’s certain: Marcus will be gone again, and back again and again and again because nothing is permanent. Especially people. Strangers become friends. Friends become lovers. Lovers become strangers. Strangers become friends once more, and over and over. Tomorrow, next week, fifty years from now, I know I’ll get another one-word postcard from Marcus, because this one doesn’t have a period signifying the end of the sentence. Or the end of anything at all.

  Megan McCafferty

  Love, Next Week, Years

  Megan McCafferty (2010). “The Complete Jessica Darling Series: Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings, Charmed Thirds, Fourth Comings, Perfect Fifths”, p.1233, Crown

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• To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Life, Death

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 16

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• Blacks concede that hurrawing, jibing, jiving, signifying, disrespecting, cursing, even outright insults might be acceptable under particular conditions, but aspersions cast against one's family call for immediate attack.

  Maya Angelou

  Family, Might, Insult

  Maya Angelou (2010). “All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes”, p.11, Vintage

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• Villains are usually the worst casuists, and rush into crimes to avoid less. Henry VIII. committed murder to avoid the imputation of adultery; and in our times, those who commit the latter crime attempt to wash off the stain of seducing the wife by signifying their readiness to shoot the husband.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Husband, Wife, Adultery

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.83

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• Canada is said to have got its name from the two Spanish words aca and nada, signifying 'there is nothing here.'

  Goldwin Smith

  Names, Two, Aca

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• Ktaadnis an Indian word signifying highest land,... very few, even among backwoodsmen and hunters, have ever climbed it, andit will be a long time before the tide of fashionable travel sets that way.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Travel, Land, Long

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• For me, the photography, in its purest form, is a variant of the fable. Another way of saving the appearances - a way of signifying, through this fabulous capture, that this supposed real world is always about to lose its meaning and its reality.

  Jean Baudrillard

  Photography, Real, Fables

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• To an ever greater extent out experience is governed by pictures, pictures in newspapers and magazines, on television and in the cinema. Next to these pictures firsthand experience begins to retreat, to seem more and more trivial. While it once seemed that pictures had the function of interpreting reality, it now seems they have usurped it. It therefore becomes imperative to understand the picture itself, not in order to uncover a lost reality, but to determine how a picture becomes a signifying structure of its own accord.

  Douglas Crimp

  Reality, Order, Cinema

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• Atheist, in the strict and proper sense of the word, is one who does not believe in the existence of a god, or who owns no being superior to nature. It is compounded of the two terms ... signifying without God.

  Richard Watson

  Atheist, Believe, Two

  Richard Watson (1832). “A Biblical and theological dictionary”, p.113

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• No great, inspiring culture of the future can be built upon the moral principle of relativism. For at its bottom such a culture holds that nothing is better than anything else, and that all things are in themselves equally meaningless. Except for the fragments of faith (in progress, in compassion, in conscience, in hope) to which it still clings, illegitimately, such a culture teaches every one of its children that life is a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing.

  Michael Novak

  Children, Compassion, Progress

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• Time is painted with a lock before, and bald behind, signifying thereby that we must take time by the forelock; for, when it is once past, there is no recalling it.

  Jonathan Swift

  Carpe Diem, Past, Locks

  Jonathan Swift (1752). “The works of D. Jonathan Swift ...: To which is prefixed, the doctor's life, with remarks on his writings, from the Earl of Orrery and others, not to be found in any former edition of his works.Dublin printed”, p.159

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• MACE, n. A staff of office signifying authority. Its form, that of a heavy club, indicates its original purpose and use in dissuading from dissent.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Office, Purpose, Use

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.134, 谷月社

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• Such is life, my fellow-mummers-just like a poor player that bluffs and feints his hour upon the stage, and then cheapens down to mere nonentity. But let me not hear any small witticism to the further effect that its story is a tale told by a vulgarian, full of slang and blanky, signifying-nothing.

  Joseph Furphy

  Art, Player, Stories

  Joseph Furphy, Frances Devlin-Glass (1991). “The annotated Such is life: such is life : being certain extracts from the diary of Tom Collins”

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• If I acknowledge my dependency, I do so because for me it is a means of signifying my demand: in the realm of love, futility is not a "weakness" or an "absurdity": it is a strong sign: the more futile, the more it signifies and the more it asserts itself as strength.)

  Roland Barthes

  Strong, Mean, Weakness

  Roland Barthes (1990). “A lover's discourse: fragments”, Penguin Books

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