The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.

The American experience stirred mankind from discovery to exploration. From the cautious quest for what they knew (or thought they knew) was out there, into an enthusiastic reaching to the unknown. These are two substantially different kinds of human enterprise.

The traveler used to go about the world to encounter the natives. A function of travel agencies now is to prevent this encounter.

Americans expect to eat and stay thin, to be constantly on the move and ever more neighborly ... to revere God and be God.

Where ruts have not yet been worn, it requires less effort to stay out of them.

Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.

The great obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents, and the oceans was not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.