This is a familiar sentence within the Masonic world, whose method is based on the study of traditional symbols and analogical language.

The Limitations of Language
The human language, however sophisticated, is not actually effective to convey all the information required to relate to others. Hence the gestures, facial expressions, intended to improve communication, are still unable to prevent misunderstandings and incomprehension. The word is only a prop, which finds it true meaning progressively, within a sentence organized through syntax.
The increased predominance of the spoken language in our society often results in a written language, which reproduces conventional phonemes. It has become a phonetic language, which has lost the direct communicability of the Egyptian or Chinese pictography.

Symbolism provides a common language
Unlike words, which obey a code, symbols enable direct communication with ideas and reality.
Whereas languages and idioms have multiplied all over the world ever since Babel, symbols have lived on through space and time, and they have preserved a universal dimension which each individual can investigate and interpret according to his personal understanding and spiritual evolution. Symbols can be read at several levels and none is exhaustive. Though personal and intimate, the experience can be communicated to a certain extent, allowing an exchange of views and interaction of ideas.
Not that we should see symbols where there are none. An emblem, for instance should not be mistaken for a symbol, since it is determined by general agreement and derives from custom and history, (for example the French flag).
Symbols, on the other hand, are defined through a relation of analogy, with an idea, a concept that can be shared by individuals who do not speak the same language.

"None shall enter here if he be not a geometer"
Geometric figures such as the triangle, the circle or the square are among the most meaningful symbols for Freemasons, because they are produced by a mental operation, which enables us to understand how our intellect works. As we pass from the simpler to the more complex we are permitted to approach and discover the very essence of the numbers and laws organizing our universe. For instance, it could be said that space can be evoked through the square, whereas the circle refers to the nature of time and cosmic cycles.

Symbolism lies at the very core of things
Despite what is sometimes argued, symbolism is not an unfounded means of communication as opposed to reason. On the contrary, it provides insight into the very nature of things beyond appearances. It enables us to grasp the secret architecture of the universe, whose multiple facets are often accessible only to artists and poets, to face, thus enlightened, the ordinary vision of everyday life.
It is no wonder that, as an initiatory society, which encourages its members to shake off prejudices and preconceptions, Freemasonry should favour the use of symbols as the most immediate vehicle to the essence of things, through the looking glass of appearances. Our perception of reality becomes all the more acute as we apprehend its multiplicity. The symbol is a means to reconstruct ourselves according to new, rationally examined guidelines, and to rediscover our identity through different approaches.