"Seeing is Believing"

Posted by ESC on March 08, 2001

In Reply to: "Seeing is Believing" posted by J.F. Prescott on March 08, 2001

: Does anyone have information on the source of this common phrase?

SEEING IS BELIEVING - "People believe that what they see is real. The proverb has been traced back to 1609 and it was cited in an unpublished manuscript in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. First attested in the United States in the 1732 'Jonathan Belcher Papers.'." From Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996). A second source has an earlier citation: "According to this old maxim, you can in fact believe your eyes. The Greek playwright Aristophanes recorded what was probably the earliest such saying in 'The Ecclesiazusae' (c. 393 B.C.) as 'I saw it and believed.'.See also 'Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear.'" From Wise Words and Wives' Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New; by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993).