Quotes about Symbol

The counting-room maxims liberally expounded are laws of the Universe. The merchant's economy is a coarse symbol of the soul's economy. It is, to spend for power, and not for pleasure.

We are faithful not to the triumphant golden eagle (ironically, also an imperial symbol of power in Rome) but to the slaughtered Lamb.

Observant Judeans would make a stop by the baths before morning prayers, as immersion was a component of spiritual cleanliness. For Jacob there was far more here than merely cleaning off the road's dust. He knew that the act of immersion was considered a symbol of change. Of elevating oneself from the earthly to the heavenly realms. Jacob wanted to mark all that had happened with such an act, and to complete the action with prayer.

My definition of mythology is other people's religion, which suggests that ours must be something else. My definition of religion, then, is misunderstood mythology — and the misunderstanding consists in mistaking the symbol for the reference. So all the historic events that are so important to us in our tradition should not be important to us in any way except as symbols of power within ourselves.

A man's power to connect his thought with its proper symbol, and so to utter it, depends on the simplicity of his character, that is, upon his love of truth, and his desire to communicate it without loss.

Worship very plainly opens up the healing of all of mankind. The struggle of gender, the struggle of race, the struggle of history, the struggle to find political liberation, the struggle of our own contradictions — nothing can be mended until we understand the symbol of Jesus' breaking of the bread and pouring of the wine.

My definition of mythology is "other people's religion," which suggests that ours must be something else. My definition of religion, then, is "misunderstood mythology"—and the misunderstanding consists in mistaking the symbol for the reference.

But there is no perfect guide for discerning God's movement in the world, Contrary to what many conservatives say, the Bible is not a blueprint on this matter. It is a valuable symbol for point to God's revelation in Jesus, but it is not self-interpreting. We are thus place in an existential situation of freedom in which the burden is on us to make decisions without a guaranteed ethical guide.

I always wear my evil eye necklace to ward off bad karma. I always wear one to protect me.

Whatever its symbol - cross or crescent or whatever - that symbol is man's reminder of his duty inside the human race.

Books are the true metempsychosis,--they are the symbol and presage of immortality. The dead men are scattered, and none shall find them. Behold they are here! they do but sleep.

A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation's flag, sees not the flag, but the nation itself.