Sign and Symbol
Things that stand for other things, from words and numbers to sacraments and images.
Works to read
- The Early Christian Creeds by Various, 2nd-5th centuries CE
- Rhetoric by Aristotle, c. 350-335 BC · Great Books
- Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare, c. 1595 · Great Books
- The Geometry by Rene Descartes, 1637 · Great Books
- An Investigation of the Laws of Thought by George Boole, 1854
- The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1892
Passages
From the texts
Natural signs are those which, apart from any intention or desire of using them as signs, do yet lead to the knowledge of something else, as, for example, smoke when it indicates fire.
— Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Doctrine
Verified quotations
Now I say the Beautiful is the symbol of the morally Good
— Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Judgement
In a Symbol there is concealment and yet revelation
— Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus
In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom
— Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present
Passages are verified quotations from the library that use one of these words: sign, signs, symbol, symbols. Sentences under “From the texts” are copied word for word from the full texts in this library. Read each in its context on the work's page.