"My experience of ships is that on them one makes an interesting discovery about the world. One finds one can do without it completely"
About this Quote
The intent isn’t just to mock cruise-ship escapism; it’s to needle the modern fantasy that isolation is sophistication. On a ship you’re surrounded by people, schedules, buffets, rituals of leisure - a miniature society engineered to feel complete. Bradbury’s subtext is that “the world” we claim to need is often just noise: obligations, news cycles, civic mess, moral complexity. Strip it away and the self adjusts with alarming ease. That’s funny in the way a truth is funny when it’s slightly shameful.
As a postwar British novelist with an ear for institutional satire, Bradbury also knows the ship as metaphor: a managed environment where class, boredom, and performance become visible because there’s nowhere else to go. The world doesn’t disappear; it’s compressed, curated, and sold back to you as experience. His cynicism targets not travel but the idea that travel automatically enlarges you. Sometimes it just reveals how readily we trade engagement for comfort - and call it discovery.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ocean & Sea |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bradbury, Malcolm. (2026, January 16). My experience of ships is that on them one makes an interesting discovery about the world. One finds one can do without it completely. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-experience-of-ships-is-that-on-them-one-makes-118605/
Chicago Style
Bradbury, Malcolm. "My experience of ships is that on them one makes an interesting discovery about the world. One finds one can do without it completely." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-experience-of-ships-is-that-on-them-one-makes-118605/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My experience of ships is that on them one makes an interesting discovery about the world. One finds one can do without it completely." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-experience-of-ships-is-that-on-them-one-makes-118605/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.
