Clifford Geertz Quotes

Travel early and travel often. Live abroad, if you can. Understand cultures other than your own. As your understanding of other cultures increases, your understanding of yourself and your own culture will increase exponentially.

I understand different cultures because I have travelled a lot.

One of the most effective ways to learn about oneself is by taking seriously the cultures of others. It forces you to pay attention to those details of life which differentiate them from you.

All I know is that every time I go to Africa, I am shaken to my core.

The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.

The biggest lesson I've learned by living abroad for the last four years is the importance of communication.

I don't think anyone could write about another culture and get it 100 percent accurate.

We travel to learn; and I have never been in any country where they did not do something better than we do it, think some thoughts better than we think, catch some inspiration from heights above our own.

I like to learn things from other cultures. I'm curious. It's exciting to be in an unknown world, in a way.

I thought I knew everything when I came to Rome, but I soon found I had everything to learn.

I really like to discover a new culture, a new country, a new rhythm of living. I really, really like that. I think that's the most enriching thing, for my nature, because I like the psychology of people.

The best reason for exposing oneself to foreign ways is to generate a sense of vitality and awareness - an interest in life which can come only when one lives through the shock of contrast and difference.

The spirit of seeking understanding through personal contact with people of other nations and other cultures deserves the respect and support of all.

For me, the experience of being in other culture really set up a longing. When I'm traveling, things seem really sharp. You learn things ten times faster.

Africa doesn't leap on you immediately; it seeps slowly, and it's incredibly important to be respectful and humble there.

People have to start talking to know more about other cultures and to understand each other.

If you're playing with somebody from another idiom, you can't react to them in the same way that you react to somebody that is closer to your idiom. You don't fall into the same habits. You find a new way of communicating.

I'm dying to go to India... because the culture seems so vastly different from what I'm used to in the States. I would love to do some yoga there. And be amongst people who are so different than myself. There's so much you can learn from people who grew up in a different environment.

It was very liberating, living in a foreign country, a place where everything was new and strange - the food, the customs, the climate, everything.

The two cultures of East and West are very different, and the priorities are very different. So when you understand that - if you are from this side or this side - when you understand that the other is different than you, and you respect these differences, you can build communication.

The films I enjoy seeing are those that reveal lives I was unaware of... in different cultures or whatever.

I say the same thing that I've said for decades now, which is: don't go over to Japan trying to change it, thinking that you know better. Go there trying to understand.

I've never been in any country for more than four years, and I'm learning different languages all the time. It gives you a different attitude.

I have been influenced in my thinking by both west and east.

Personally, I have been enriched by my experiences in Egypt and America, and feel fortunate to have been endowed with a true passion for knowledge.