Sign

A sign is an entity which indicates another entity. In semiotics, a sign is something that can be interpreted as having a meaning, which is something other than itself, and which is therefore able to communicate information to the one interpreting or decoding the sign. Signs can work through any of the senses, visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory or taste, and their meaning can be intentional, such as a word uttered with a specific meaning, or unintentional, such as a symptom being a sign of a particular medical condition.

See also:

Semiotics

• I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes, I saw the sign.
  Life is demanding without understanding.
  I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes, I saw the sign.
  No one's gonna drag you up to get into the light where you belong
  But where do you belong?
  • Jonas Berggren in "The Sign"

• Hey if God will send his angels
  And if God will send a sign
  And if God will send his angels
  Would everything be alright?
  • Bono, "If God Will Send His Angels" on Pop (1997); also used in City of Angels (1998)

• I read the signs,
  I got all my stars aligned,
  My amulets, my charms,
  I set all my false alarms,
  So I'll be someone
  Who won't be forgotten.
  • Annie Erin Clark (aka St. Vincent), in "All My Stars Aligned", on Marry Me (2007)

• Signs, signs, everywhere a sign
  Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
  Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?
  • Les Emmerson, in "Signs" (1970)

• And the sign said, “Anybody caught trespassin' would be shot on sight”
  So, I jumped on the fence and-a yelled at the house
  "Hey, what gives you the right?
  To put up a fence to keep me out or to keep mother nature in
  If God was here, He'd tell you to your face, man, you're some kinda sinner.
  • Les Emmerson, in "Signs" (1970)

• If there are sound reasons or bases for the points you demand, then there is no need for violence. On the other hand, when there is no sound reason that concessions should be made to you but mainly your own desire, then reason cannot work and you have to rely on force. Thus using force is not a sign of strength but rather a sign of weakness.
  • Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, in "The Nobel Evening Address" in The Dalai Lama : A Policy of Kindness (1990), p. 115

• Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.
  • Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, as quoted in Words Of Wisdom: Selected Quotes by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (2001) edited by Margaret Gee, p. 71

• Then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in grief, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
  • Jesus, Matthew 24:30

• Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.
  • Jesus, as quoted in Gospel of John 4:48

• The entire universe is perfused with signs, if it is not composed exclusively of signs.
  • Charles Sanders Peirce, as quoted in Essays in Zoosemiotics (1990) by Thomas A. Sebeok

• If the sign were not related to its object except by the mind thinking of them separately, it would not fulfil the function of a sign at all. Supposing, then, the relation of the sign to its object does not lie in a mental association, there must be a direct dual relation of the sign to its object independent of the mind using the sign. In the second of the three cases just spoken of, this dual relation is not degenerate, and the sign signifies its object solely by virtue of being really connected with it. Of this nature are all natural signs and physical symptoms. I call such a sign an index, a pointing finger being the type of the class.
  The index asserts nothing; it only says "There!" It takes hold of our eyes, as it were, and forcibly directs them to a particular object, and there it stops.
  • Charles Sanders Peirce, in "On The Algebra of Logic : A Contribution to the Philosophy of Notation" in The American Journal of Mathematics (1885)

• A sign is in a conjoint relation to the thing denoted and to the mind. If this triple relation is not of a degenerate species, the sign is related to its object only in consequence of a mental association, and depends upon a habit. Such signs are always abstract and general, because habits are general rules to which the organism has become subjected. They are, for the most part, conventional or arbitrary. They include all general words, the main body of speech, and any mode of conveying a judgment. For the sake of brevity I will call them tokens.
  • Charles Sanders Peirce, in "On The Algebra of Logic : A Contribution to the Philosophy of Notation" in The American Journal of Mathematics (1885)

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