S. I. Hayakawa book Language in Thought and Action
Source: Language in Thought and Action (1949), The Symbolic Process, p. 24
Source: Language in Thought and Action (1949), Language as Symbolism, p. 27
S. I. Hayakawa book Language in Thought and Action
Source: Language in Thought and Action (1949), The Symbolic Process, p. 24
“Symbols can be so beautiful, sometimes.”
Kurt Vonnegut book Breakfast of Champions
Breakfast of Champions (1973)
Context: I was on par with the Creator of the Universe there in the dark in the cocktail lounge. I shrunk the Universe to a ball exactly one light-year in diameter. I had it explode. I had it disperse itself again.
Ask me a question, any question. How old is the Universe? It is one half-second old, but the half-second has lasted one quintillion years so far. Who created it? Nobody created it. It has always been here.
What is time? It is a serpent which eats its tail, like this:
This is the snake which uncoiled itself long enough to offer Eve the apple, which looked like this:
What was the apple which Eve and Adam ate? It was the Creator of the Universe.
And so on.
Symbols can be so beautiful, sometimes.
S. I. Hayakawa book Language in Thought and Action
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Source: Language in Thought and Action (1949), Language as Symbolism, pp. 26-27
Rebecca Solnit (1961) Author and essayist from United States
Source: Wanderlust: A History of Walking
Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/01/trump-arizona-rally-2024-election/621244/ theatlantic
2022, January 2022
Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948) Russian philosopher
Source: Spirit and Reality (1946), p. 52
Context: Spirit, like flame, like freedom, like creativeness, is opposed to any social stagnation or any lifeless tradition. In terms of Kantian philosophy — terms which I consider erroneous and confusing — spirit appears as a thing in itself and objectification as a phenomenon. Another and truer definition would be, spirit is freedom and objectification is nature (not in the romantic sense). Objectification has two aspects: on the one hand it denotes the fallen, divided and servile world, in which the existential subjects, the personalities, are materialized. On the other it comprehends the agency of the personal subject, of spirit tending to reinforce ties and communications in this fallen world. Hence objectification is related to the problem of culture, and in this consists the whole complexity of the problem.
In objectification there are no primal realities, but only symbols. The objective spirit is merely a symbolism of spirit. Spirit is realistic while cultural and social life are symbolical. In the object there is never any reality, but only the symbol of reality. The subject alone always has reality. Therefore in objectification and in its product, the objective spirit, there can be no sacred reality, but only its symbolism. In the objective history of the world nothing transpires but a conventional symbolism; the idea of sacredness is peculiar to the existential world, to existential subjects. The real depths of spirit are apprehensible only existentially in the personal experience of destiny, in its suffering, nostalgia, love, creation, freedom and death.
R. G. Collingwood (1889–1943) British historian and philosopher
Source: The Principles of Art (1938), p. 268
Charles Perrow (1925–2019) American sociologist
Source: 1960s, "A Framework for the Comparative Analysis of Organizations", 1967, p. 195
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer
Comment on her sex symbol status, quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40