SYMBOL, n. Something that is supposed to typify or stand for something else. Many symbols are mere "survivals" -- things which having no longer any utility continue to exist because we have inherited the tendency to make them; as funereal urns carved on memorial monuments. They were once real urns holding the ashes of the dead. We cannot stop making them, but we can give them a name that conceals our helplessness.

Famous Quotes / Ambrose Bierce

Authors: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Ambrose Bierce: "SYMBOL, n. Something that is supposed to typify or stand for something else. Many symbols are mere "survivals" -- things which having no longer any utility continue to exist because we have inherited the tendency to make them; as funereal urns carved on memorial monuments. They were once real urns holding the ashes of the dead. We cannot stop making them, but we can give them a name that conceals our helplessness."

Quotations about

Ashes	Because	Carved	Conceals
Continue	Dead	Exist	Funereal
Give	Having	Helplessness	Holding
Inherited	Longer	Make	Making
Memorial	Mere	Monuments	Name
Once	Real	Something	Stand
Stop	Supposed	Survivals	Symbol
Symbols	Tendency	Them	Things
Typify	Urns	Utility

Quotes by Power Quotations

SYMBOL, n. Something that is supposed to typify or stand for something else. Many symbols are mere "survivals" -- things which having no longer any utility continue to exist because we have inherited the tendency to make them; as funereal urns carved on memorial monuments. They were once real urns holding the ashes of the dead. We cannot stop making them, but we can give them a name that conceals our helplessness. - Ambrose Bierce