Utopia Exploration Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Book.Page) based on the 1989 Cambridge University Press edition

Quote #7

I have a feeling they picked up Greek more easily because it was somewhat related to their own tongue. Though their language resembles Persian in most respects, I suspect them of deriving from Greece because, in the names of cities and in official titles, they retain quite a few vestiges of the Greek tongue. (2.78)

More is having a little fun with us here. Not only is he making a joke about all those Greek word-games we keep seeing, he's also inserting Utopia into the cultural history of a European world. Where are we again? Is Utopia similar to Europe, or really different?

Quote #8

Any sightseer coming to [Utopia] who has some special intellectual gift, or who has travelled widely and seen many countries, is sure of a warm welcome, for they love to hear what is happening throughout the world (2.79)

Does this make the Utopians stationary explorers? Is that even possible?

Quote #9

But in that New World [the area including Utopia], which is distanced from ours not so much by geography as by customs and manners, nobody trusts treaties (2.86)

Hythloday is doing something nifty here with the image of exploration. He's shifting it from being something purely literal to something metaphorical as well. The "newness" isn't so much a quality of physical discovery but of intellectual discovery.