Quote of the day by Marco Polo: 'I did not write half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed', and how reality could be much larger than human imagination

Quote of the day by Marco Polo. Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant, traveler, and writer born in 1254. In the late thirteenth century, when most Europeans spent their entire lives inside a small cluster of neighboring villages, Marco Polo set out on an extraordinary 24-year journey across Asia alongside his father and uncle. He traveled thousands of miles along the trade network known as the Silk Road, crossing harsh deserts and high mountain ranges until he reached China, which was then ruled by the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan.It is said that on his deathbed in 1324, when his family, friends, and priests begged him to repent for his fabrications and confess that he had exaggerated his book so his soul could enter heaven peacefully, he said. "I did not write half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed."Tales and legends of Marco PoloMarco Polo did not just visit Asia; he lived there for seventeen years. Kublai Khan was impressed by his intelligence and ability to speak several languages, so he employed Marco Polo as a diplomat and government official. This position allowed him to travel extensively through regions of the world that no European had ever documented. When he...