“And you must know this law of culture: two civilisations cannot know and understand each other well. You will start going deaf and blind. You will be content in your civilisation surrounded by the hedge, but signals from the other civilisation will be as incomprehensible to you as if they had been sent by inhabitants of Venus. If you feel like it, you can become an explorer in your own country. You can become Columbus, Magellan, Livingston. But I doubt that you will have such a desire. Such expeditions are very dangerous, and you are no madman, are you?”

Ryszard Kapuscinski, The Emperor