"Some minds improve by travel, others, rather, resemble copper wire, or brass, which get the narrower by going farther"
About this Quote
Travel is supposed to broaden you; Hood’s jab is that it can also expose how narrow you already are. The line turns on a sly reversal: “going farther” doesn’t guarantee expansion. For some people, movement just stretches their prejudices into a longer itinerary. The simile does the real work. Copper wire and brass aren’t just any materials; they’re ductile, made to be pulled, thinned, and bent into useful shapes. Hood implies a kind of worldly “improvement” that’s purely mechanical: the traveler gets drawn out into anecdotes, opinions, and self-congratulation, but the core doesn’t widen. It narrows.
The intent is corrective and a little cruel. Hood isn’t romanticizing the grand tour; he’s puncturing a 19th-century faith that exposure equals enlightenment. Britain’s travel culture in his era was fueled by empire, industry, and a rising middle class hungry for polish. That context matters: travel could be less about curiosity than status, consumption, and confirmation. You go abroad to feel sophisticated, then return with souvenirs and stereotypes.
Subtextually, the quote targets a familiar character: the person who treats foreign places as scenery for their own certainty. Hood’s metaphor suggests that distance can become a stress test. An open mind gains capacity; an already-rigid mind, when “drawn” by new experiences, doesn’t expand into empathy. It just becomes a thinner, tighter version of itself, more brittle, more conductive of the same old current.
The intent is corrective and a little cruel. Hood isn’t romanticizing the grand tour; he’s puncturing a 19th-century faith that exposure equals enlightenment. Britain’s travel culture in his era was fueled by empire, industry, and a rising middle class hungry for polish. That context matters: travel could be less about curiosity than status, consumption, and confirmation. You go abroad to feel sophisticated, then return with souvenirs and stereotypes.
Subtextually, the quote targets a familiar character: the person who treats foreign places as scenery for their own certainty. Hood’s metaphor suggests that distance can become a stress test. An open mind gains capacity; an already-rigid mind, when “drawn” by new experiences, doesn’t expand into empathy. It just becomes a thinner, tighter version of itself, more brittle, more conductive of the same old current.
Quote Details
| Topic | Travel |
|---|
More Quotes by Thomas
Add to List
