Symbolic Quotes - Page 10

• [Culture] denotes an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms, by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life.

  Clifford Geertz

  Attitude, Mean, Men

  Clifford Geertz (1973). “The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays”, p.89, Basic Books

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• There haven't been fundamental structural changes in America. There's been a very important symbolic change and that is the election of Barack Obama. But the only black people who truly live in a post-racial world in America all live in a very nice house on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Nice, America, People

  "Skip Gates Speaks". Interview with Dayo Olopade, www.theroot.com. July 21, 2009.

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• When writing is good, everything is symbolic, but symbolic writing is seldom good.

  Wright Morris

  Writing

  Wright Morris (1968). “A Bill of Rites, a Bill of Wrongs, a Bill of Goods”, [New York] : New American Library

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• The poet Marianne Moore famously wrote of 'real toads in imaginary gardens,' and the labyrinth offers us the possibility of being real creatures in symbolic space...In such spaces as the labyrinth we cross over [between real and imaginary spaces]; we are really travelling, even if the destination is only symbolic.

  Rebecca Solnit

  Real, Garden, Space

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• Before getting to my mother's house, I would always think of her on the porch or even on the street, sweeping. She had a light way of sweeping, as if removing the dirt were not as important as moving the broom over the ground. Her way of sweeping was symbolic; so airy, so fragile, with a broom she tried to sweep away all the horrors, all the loneliness, all the misery that had accompanied her all her life.

  Reinaldo Arenas

  Mother, Loneliness, Moving

  Reinaldo Arenas (2010). “Before Night Falls”, p.142, Profile Books

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• There are various forms of weaponry, intellectual weaponry, spiritual weaponry, political weaponry, economic weaponry. Because we are on the battlefield, and there are bullets flying, some symbolic, some literal and the life of the mind is a crucial place where the battle goes on.

  Cornel West

  Spiritual, Political, Flying

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• As a whole, I am interested in the symbolic, rather than the literal use of the camera.

  Clarence John Laughlin

  Use, Cameras, Literal

  Keith F. Davis, Nancy Barrett, John H. Lawrence, Clarence John Laughlin (1990). “Clarence John Laughlin: visionary photographer”, Hallmark Card Inc

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• Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Change, Night, Light

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• The popularity of disaster movies expresses a collective perception of a world threatened by irresistible and unforeseen forces which nevertheless are thwarted at the last moment. Their thinly veiled symbolic meaning might be translated thus: We are innocent of wrongdoing. We are attacked by unforeseeable forces come to harm us. We are, thus, innocent even of negligence. Though those forces are insuperable, chance will come to our aid and we shall emerge victorious.

  David Mamet

  Symbolic Meaning, Perception, Tragedy

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• People who look for symbolic meaning fail to grasp the inherent poetry and mystery of the images.

  Rene Magritte

  Symbolic Meaning, People, Looks

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• I'm not playing myself. It's a symbolic situation, where I want to introduce a fascist behind the table. I couldn't have had anybody else do that; for it to be successful, I had to do it myself.

  Mohsen Makhmalbaf

  Successful, Tables, Want

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Today's terrorists are pursuing a distinct route. They are increasingly attacking civilians in symbolic targets, such as those of economic importance, or venues of bustling life like public transportation or entertainment, like nightclubs.

  Cliff Stearns

  Today, Entertainment, Target

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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.

  Laura Mulvey

  Men, Order, Males

  Laura Mulvey (1989). “Visual and Other Pleasures”, p.15, Springer

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• The ultimate goal of Jungian psychotherapy is to make the symbolic process conscious

  Edward F Edinger

  Goal, Psychology, Conscious

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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.

  Charles Kingsley

  Eye, Two, Curves

  Charles Kingsley (1859). “Sir Walter Raleigh and His Time, with Other Papers”, p.405

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• Take the birds which you'll have noticed in so many of my recent paintings. I never thought them up, they just materialized of their own accord; they were born on the canvas... it is absurd to read any sort of symbolic significance into them.

  Georges Braque

  Bird, Painting, Canvas

  Georges Braque (1964). “Georges Braque, 1882-1963: An American Tribute”

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• Numerical logistic is that which employs numbers; symbolic logistic that which uses symbols, as, say, the letters of the alphabet.

  Francois Viete

  Numbers, Use, Letters

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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.

  Jonathan Gottschall

  Sports, Crazy, Rome

  "A Talk With The Savage English Professor". Interview with Sam Harris, www.thedailybeast.com. March 5, 2015.

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• Clothes allow you to see yourself in a different light. They can transform you instantly and have a very real, visceral impact. Clothes become symbolic of who we are.

  Stacy London

  Real, Impact, Light

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• The trouble with "sacrifices as symbolic acts" is that the immediate impact on those for whom the sacrifice is made quickly fades, while the impact on those who actually make the sacrifice can go on and on.

  Preston Manning

  Sacrifice, Impact, Goes On

  "The New Canada". Book by Preston Manning, 1992.

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• The good thing is that all the symbolic elements are gone, and that which really matters - the core - is left.

  Anders Fogh Rasmussen

  Gone, Elements, Matter

  Jyllands-Posten, June 25, 2007.

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• I think of many of my photographs as being obviously symbolic but not symbolically obvious. There isn't any specific correlation between the symbols in this image and any content that I have in mind.

  Jerry Uelsmann

  Thinking, Mind, Photographer

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• People working at the arenas are not just depending on one or two concerts. I think it gives a symbolic boost, as well as those shows do bring down some monetary investments in the city.

  Al Sharpton

  Thinking, Cities, Two

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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• From the moment of birth, at every level, human beings who are more alike than different become polarized into two absolutely exclusive classes with very different and ill-distributed symbolic powers.

  Nancy Mairs

  Class, Two, Different

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• The entrance into Jerusalem has all the elements of the theatre of the absurd: the poor king; truth comes riding on a donkey; symbolic actions - even parading without a permit!

  David Edward Kirk

  Kings, Theatre, Riding

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