p.1 Images are things that represent (re-present) something else.

p.11-12 Our perception of the physical world is... based on codes involving iconic signs. The world does not enter our mind nor does it deposit a picture of itself there spontaneously. Perception depends on coding the world into iconic signs that can re-present it within our mind. The force of the apparent identity is enormous, however. We think that it is the world itself we see in our "mind's eye", rather than a coded picture of it

p.12 A useful habit formed by our brains must not be mistaken for an essential attribute of reality. Just as we must learn to read an image, we must learn to read the physical world. Once we have developed this skill (which we do very early in life), it is very easy to mistake it for an automatic or unlearned process, just as we may mistake our particular way of reading, or seeing, for a natural, ahistorical and noncultural given.

p.21 The emergence of a sign-system, even an iconic one, forces us to step aside from the immediacy of brute presence.

p.26 Once we have conducted this process for a period of time in a given cultural context, a certain constancy of perception emerges. The variability of the everyday world becomes translated by reference to less variable codes. The environment becomes a text to be read like any other text.