Travel being more important than the destination

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on October 31, 2006

In Reply to: Travel being more important than the destination posted by Bob on October 31, 2006

: : : Hi.
: : : I'm looking for a phrase that says something about travel being more important than the destination...
: : : I'm sure I've heard it before, both in English and Norwegian. Just can't seem to find it anywhere.

: : : Thanx : )

: : The easy answer is the old advertising slogan "Getting there is half the fun."
: : A better answer is:
: : Ithaka
: : Translated by Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard
: As you set out for Ithaka
: hope your road is a long one,
: full of adventure, full of discovery.
: Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
: angry Poseidon-don't be afraid of them:
: you'll never find things like that on your way
: as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
: as long as a rare excitement
: stirs your spirit and your body.
: Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
: wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
: unless you bring them along inside your soul,
: unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
: Hope your road is a long one.
: May there be many summer mornings when,
: with what pleasure, what joy,
: you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
: may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
: to buy fine things,
: mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
: sensual perfume of every kind-
: as many sensual perfumes as you can;
: and may you visit many Egyptian cities
: to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

: Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
: Arriving there is what you're destined for.
: But don't hurry the journey at all.
: Better if it lasts for years,
: so you're old by the time you reach the island,
: wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
: not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
: Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
: Without her you wouldn't have set out.
: She has nothing left to give you now.

: And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
: Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
: you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

How about the old Robert Louis Stevenson quote "It is better to travel hopefully to arrive"?

• Travel being more important than the destination Bob 01/November/06