# Quote — Peter Berger, The Social Construction of Reality

> A sign [has the] explicit intention to serve as an index of subjective meanings... Language is capable of becoming the objective repository of vast accumulations of meaning and experience, which it can then preserve in time and transmit to following generations... Language also typifies experiences, allowing me to subsume them under broad categories in terms of which they have meaning not only to myself but also to my fellowmen.

- Author: [Peter Berger](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-berger.md)
- Book: [The Social Construction of Reality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-berger/the-social-construction-of-reality.md)
- Page: 35
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_L._Berger#The_Social_Construction_of_Reality,_1966) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-berger/the-social-construction-of-reality/a-sign-has

## More from this book

> A society’s stock of knowledge is structured in terms of what is generally relevant and what is relevant only to specific roles… the social distribution of knowledge entails a dichotomization in terms of general and role-specific relevance… because of the division of labor, role-specific knowledge will grow at a faster rate than generally relevant and accessible knowledge… The increasing number and complexity of [the resulting] sub universes [of specialized knowledge] make them increasingly inaccessible to outsiders.

p. 77 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-berger/the-social-construction-of-reality/a-societys-stock.md)

> Specific procedures of universe-maintenance become necessary when the symbolic universe has become a problem. As long as this is not the case, the symbolic universe is self-maintaining, that is, self-legitimating by the sheer facticity of its objective existence in the society in question.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-berger/the-social-construction-of-reality/specific-procedures-of-universe-maintenance.md)

> Modern science is an extreme step in this development, and in the secularization and sophistication of universe-maintenance.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-berger/the-social-construction-of-reality/modern-science-is-an-extreme.md)
