If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder† Thou shalt not hearken.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Deuteronomy13:1^3.

We receive this Child into the Congregation of Christ's flock, and dosign him with thesign of the Cross, in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under his banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and to continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto his life's end. Amen.

-Book of Common Prayer
Publick Baptism of Infants, Reception of the Child.

An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us.

-Book of Common Prayer
Catechism.

In hoc signo vinces. In this sign thou shalt conquer.

-Constantinus
AD 312  'Constantine's Vision', quoted in Eusebius Life of Constantine.

When a manfell into his anecdotage it was a sign for him to retire from the world.

-Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
  Lothair, ch.28.

A conjuring trick with bones only proves that it is as clever as a conjuring trick with bones† A resuscitated corpse might be a resuscitated corpse and might be the sign of something, butthere isstill the questionof what it is the symbol of.

-Jenkins, David Edward
  Of the Christian doctrine of Christ's physical resurrection. 'Poles  Apart', BBC radio broadcast, 4 Oct.

Sweetly they slept On the blue fields of heaven, and then there crept A little noiseless noise among the leaves, Born of the very sign that silence heaves.

-Keats,John
  'I Stood Tip-Toe upon a Little Hill', l.9^12.

The unconscious in us warns us that in art we have to followoneparticular path. And if wefollow it, it isnotthe sign of anunconscious act.On the contrary, it showsthat there is in our ordinary consciousness a greater awareness of our unconsciousness.

-Mondrian, Piet
Quoted in F Elgar Mondrian (1968).

And it is a good sign that this masquerading knight- errant, this pretended champion of the rights of every other nation except those of the Irish nation, should be obliged to throw off the mask today, and to stand revealed as the man who by his own utterances is prepared to carry fire and sword into your homesteads unless you humbly abase yourselves before him, and before the landlords of the country.

-Parnell, Charles Stewart
Speech successfully inciting Gladstone to arrest him, 9 Oct.

I never give out my zodiac sign. Do you honestly think I can be pushed around by a planet? Good heavens, your divine nature is always free.

-Peace Pilgrim real name Mildred Norman
Quoted in Susan Hayward and Malcolm CohenThe Bag ofJewels (1988).

It is trulya place for self-presentationöof oneself, to oneself. A fitting sign of the self-absorbed 1980s.

-Rybczynski,Witold Marian
  On the increasing luxuriousness of bathrooms. Looking Around.

Vous savez qu'on doit se sentir heureux.Tous les vrais e¤  crivains ont e¤  prouve¤   ce sentiment. Quand on ne l'e¤  prouve pas, je suis oblige¤   de vous en avertir, c'est mauvais signe. You know that one should feel happy. All thetrue writers have experienced this feeling.When one does not experience it, I am obliged to tell you that it is a bad sign.

-Sarraute, Nathalie
  Entre la vie et la mort.

It was remarked to me by the late Mr Charles Roupell†that to play billiards well was a sign of an ill- spent youth.

-Spencer, Herbert
Quoted in Duncan Life and Letters of Spencer, ch.20. Robert Louis Stevenson has also been credited with this observation.

When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.

-Swift,Jonathan
Thoughts onVarious Subjects.