"How often do we think of the thing in algebra? When we use the symbol of multiplication we do not even think out the conception of multiplication, we think merely of the laws of that symbol, which coincide with the laws of the conception, and what is more to the purpose coincide with the laws of multiplication in the object. Now, I ask, how is it that anything can be done with a symbol, without reflecting upon the conception, much less imagining the object that belongs to it? It is simply because the symbol has acquired a nature, which may be described thus, that when it is brought before the mind certain principles of its use -- whether reflected on or not -- by association immediately regulate the action of the mind; and these may be regarded as laws of the symbol itself which it cannot 'as a symbol' transgress."
- C.S. Peirce, 'Chronological Edition', CE 1, p. 173. Charles Sanders Peirce, "Harvard Lectures 'On the Logic of Science'", (1865), Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 1, 1857-1866', Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1982.
Cap tip Jon
