“Perception requires imagination because the data people encounter in their lives are never complete and always equivocal.”
Source: The Drunkard's Walk, Chapter 9, Illusions Of Pattens And Patterns Of Illusions, p. 170-171
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Leonard Mlodinow 17
American physicist, author and screenwriter 1954Related quotes

“Imagination is the living power and prime agent of all human perception.”

“It is the encounters with people that make life worth living.”
Variant: It is the lives we encounter that make life worth living.

Source: Graphics and graphic information processing (1981), p. 16 as cited in: Riccardo Mazza (2004) Introduction to Information Visualisation http://www.dti.supsi.ch/~mazza/infovis_introduction.pdf

A similar quotes about EPCOT and other similar statements about Disneyland also exist.
The Quotable Walt Disney (2001)
Variant: Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.

Mademoiselle: the magazine for the smart young woman, Volume 64, 1966, p. 114
1960s
Source: The Relevance of Manipulation to the Process of Perception, 1977, p. 133