# Source of a Poincaré quote from a Busemann paper

In his paper "The geometry of Finsler spaces" (available at https://projecteuclid.org/journals/bulletin-of-the-american-mathematical-society-new-series/volume-56/issue-1.P1/The-geometry-of-Finsler-spaces/bams/1183514449.full) Busemann quotes Poincaré (p. 8):

Poincaré said somewhere$$^5$$ on the subject of generalizations: On ne fait pas un grand voyage pour ne trouver que ce qu'on a chez soi.

with the footnote being

$$^5$$ The author forgot where he saw this remark and was unable to locate it, but would be grateful for a reference.

A naive search online points to Busemann's paper. I have also done naive searches on digital copies of the standard Poincaré "philosophy" books to no avail. I second Busemann.

The quote roughly translates to: "One does not make a big trip to find only what one has at home." Certainly this is in character, as far as I can see.

As a disclaimer, I've asked this question on M.SE about six months ago (https://math.stackexchange.com/q/4204323/169085), but the question did not get much traction.

• Sounds like a quote from an old Chinese book. Jan 27 at 17:43