"The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect was already in the cause."
Answers:
Basically it means that we are what we are today and we are where we are today because of what occured in the past.
Hope this helps! :)
This is intended as a metaphysical statement. In other words, it's about existence, what things actually exist and why. It's not merely about how things work. That interpretation trivializes it.
So if you take this statement to its extreme implication, Bergson says that nothing is ever truly new; it only may appear to be new ("the present contains nothing more than the past"). Everything already exists that's ever going to exist.
I'll bet that you'll get some longer and interesting answers if you post this over in the Arts & Humanities / Philosophy category - http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&... - those folks can write paragraphs about this kind of thing.
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