Symbols

Science sees signs; Poetry the thing signified. ~ J. C. and A. W. Hare

Symbols are things such as particular forms or marks which represent some sort of information, an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning and they often are derived from or are used in metaphors. Studies of how symbols are used are a major aspect of the discipline of semiotics.

Quotes

I think, here is your emblem
To hang in the future sky... ~ Robinson Jeffers

Reason will not decide at last; the sword will decide.
The sword: an obsolete instrument of bronze or steel,
formerly used to kill men, but here
In the sense of a symbol. ~ Robinson Jeffers

Science and mathematics
Run parallel to reality, they symbolize it, they squint at it,
They never touch it... ~ Robinson Jeffers

• I think, here is your emblem
  To hang in the future sky;
  Not the cross, not the hive,
  But this; bright power, dark peace;
  Fierce consciousness joined with final
  Disinterestedness;
  Life with calm death; the falcon’s
  Realist eyes and act
  Married to the massive
  Mysticism of stone,
  Which failure cannot cast down
  Nor success make proud.
  • Robinson Jeffers, in "Rock and Hawk" in Solstice and Other Poems (1935).

• Reason will not decide at last; the sword will decide.
  The sword: an obsolete instrument of bronze or steel,
  formerly used to kill men, but here
  In the sense of a symbol.
  • Robinson Jeffers, in "Contemplation of The Sword" (1938).

• Science and mathematics
  Run parallel to reality, they symbolize it, they squint at it,
  They never touch it: consider what an explosion
  Would rock the bones of men into little white fragments and unsky the world
  If any mind for a moment touch truth.
  • Robinson Jeffers, in "The Silent Shepherds" (1958).

• In fact a man in love or one consumed with hatred creates symbols for himself, as a superstitious man does, from a passion of conferring uniqueness on things or persons. A man who knows nothing of symbols is one of Dante's sluggards. This is why art mirrors itself in primitive rites or strong passions, seeking for symbols, revolving round the primitive taste for savagery, for what is irrational (blood and sex).
  • Cesare Pavese, This Business of Living, 1944-07-14

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 775.

• With crosses, relics, crucifixes,
  Beads, pictures, rosaries, and pixes;
  The tools of working out salvation
  By mere mechanic operation.
  • Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part III (1678), Canto I, line 1,495.

• Science sees signs; Poetry the thing signified.
  • J. C. and A. W. Hare, Guesses at Truth.

• It [Catholicism] supplies a multitude of external forms in which the spiritual may be clothed and manifested.
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne, Marble Faun, Volume II, Chapter XIII.

• All things are symbols: the external shows
  Of Nature have their image in the mind,
  As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Harvest Moon.

• Sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish;
  A vapour sometime like a bear or lion,
  A tower'd citadel, a pendant rock,
  A forked mountain, or blue promontory
  With trees upon 't, that nod unto the world,
  And mock our eyes with air: thou hast seen these signs;
  They are black vesper's pageants.
  • William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1600s), Act IV, Stanza 14, line 2.

• If he be not in love with some woman, there is no believing old signs: a' brushes his hat o' mornings; what should that bode?
  • William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99), Act III, scene 2, line 40.