“Great stirrings of the mind have frequently followed great ages of travel. Throughout history by going to far places and seeing strange sights men have prodded their imagination. They have found amazement and delight and have reflected that life back home need not always remain what it has been. They have learned that there is more than one way to skin a cat, that there are more things in heaven and earth than was dreamt of in their philosophy, that the possibilities of life are not exhausted on Main Street. * In the fifteenth century the discovery of the Americans, the voyages around Africa and to the Indies opened their eyes, enlarged thought, and helped create the Renaissance. The travels of the seventeenth century around Europe, to America, and to the Orient helped awaken men to ways of life different than their own and led to the Enlightenment. The discovery of new worlds has always renewed men’s minds. Travel has been the universal catalyst. It has made men think faster, imagine larger, want more passionately.”
–Daniel Boorstin, The Image (1961)