As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.

Mead draws an analogy between travel and cross-cultural study: leaving one’s familiar surroundings yields perspective that cannot be gained from staying “on the doorstep.” The point is not that other cultures are merely exotic objects of curiosity, but that encountering difference disciplines perception—making one more critical about what one takes for granted at home—and also deepens affection for one’s own society by seeing it as one possibility among many. The quote reflects a core anthropological claim associated with Mead’s public writing: cultural comparison can reduce parochialism, sharpen judgment, and cultivate a more reflective, humane form of patriotism rather than unexamined loyalty.