Robertson Davies on perception

Wearable computing device, Devices that Alter Perception conference (Seoul, Korea: September 21, 2008)

Wearable computing device, Devices that Alter Perception conference (Seoul, Korea: September 21, 2008).
Image credit: DAP 2008

…the eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
Robertson Davies in Tempest-Tost, (Toronto: Clark, Irwin, 1951), p. 127.

Misattribution

This quotation is frequently misattributed to Henri Bergson. Here is the most similar Bergson quotation I was able to find:

For, however extraordinary the coincidence, it becomes acceptable from the very fact that it is accepted; and we do accept it, if we have been gradually prepared for its reception.
Henri Bergson in Laughter: An essay on the meaning of the comic, translated from the French by Cloudesley Brereton and Fred Rothwell, (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1914), p. 93. Originally published as Le rire: essai sur la signification du Comique, (Paris: Alcan, 1900).

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"For, however extraordinary the coincidence"
Robertson Davies Henri Bergson Posted on behalf of and on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 under Misattributions, Quotations.

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