Philosophy and Embroidery

"We perceive the resemblance before we receive the individuals which resemble each other; and, in an aggregate of contiguous parts, we perceive the whole before we perceive the parts. We go on from similarity to similar object, embroidering upon the similarity, as on their common stuff or canvas, the variety of individual differences."

Bergson, Henri (2004), Matter and Memory, Translated by Nancy Margaret Paul and W. Scott Palmer, Dover Philosophical Classics, Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola, New York, p.214, 215