--"It is useful to know something of the manners of different nations, that we may be enabled to form a more correct judgment regarding our own, and be prevented from thinking that everything contrary to our customs is ridiculous and irrational…On the other hand, when too much time is occupied in travelling, we become strangers to our native country."---
René Descartes (1596–1650). From ‘Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the Sciences’.