“As a general rule—never substitute the symbol for the thing signified, unless it is impossible to show the thing itself; for the child's attention is so taken up with the symbol that he will forget what it signifies.”
Emile, or On Education (1762), Book III
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Jean Jacques Rousseau 91
Genevan philosopher 1712–1778Related quotes

[2013, From the Divine to the Human, World Wisdom, 82, 978-1-936597-32-1]
Spiritual path, Symbolism

Source: In Praise of Philosophy (1963), p. 57

Noah BenShea, Great Quotes to Inspire Great Teachers, Corwin Press, 2001, ISBN 0761945407, p. 78.
Attributed

“Beauty lay not in the thing, but in what the thing symbolized.”
Source: Tess of the D'Urbervilles
“Symbols have a trick of stealing the show away from the thing they stand for.”
Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 99