Travel being more important than the destination

Posted by Bob on November 01, 2006

In Reply to: Travel being more important than the destination posted by Victoria S Dennis 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 than to arrive"?

I neglected to mention that the poem is by Cavafy. It's fun to read out loud.