CREDITS
1. Picture: Big Moon from @nevenkrcmarek
The colors of our Moon have been enhanced by Neven Krcmarek.
2. Video: Sun pulling planets from www.rhysy.com
In the video, the planets move in their orbits at different rates simulating the differences in time for one “day” for each planet. The math calculating the passage of our Sun pulling the orbiting planets is a nice addition. Thanks to Rhysy for the beautiful dance.
3. Expression: Life Is a Journey, Not a Destination
The expression has been attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, but QuoteInvestigator.com concludes that the expression (or phrase) “is an anonymous modern proverb that entered circulation by 1920.” See From QuoteInvestigator.com below.
However, the purpose of the expression for Gone Together is an allegory where the expression relates to the life of our Universe, our galaxy, our solar system, our planet, ourselves and our moon. We are the ones absorbed in a destination, not life. The rest of the Universe may not be absorbed, but it is fast. If it left us behind, we would not have gone together this far.
From QuoteInvestigator.com
Dear Quote Investigator: Ralph Waldo Emerson is often credited with the following: Life is a journey, not a destination.
I’ve searched the RWE.org database without luck and did a text search through over 1100 pages of his essays. I believe this is a misattribution. Any insight you have into the lineage of this quote would be much appreciated.
Quote Investigator: QI believes that an exact match for the expression above has not been found in the oeuvre of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Yet, Emerson did write a thematically related remark [RWEJ]: To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.
This sentence suggested a psychological vantage point in which the intermediate advances of the journey were representative of the completion of the journey. This is arguably a distinct statement from the questioner’s saying which is listed in “The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs” without attachment to a specific person [DPLJ].
The earliest close match located by QI appeared in 1920 in a periodical called “The Christian Advocate”. The phrase was used by the theologian Lynn H. Hough within his outline for a Sunday School Lesson discussing a letter from Simon Peter. Bold face has been added to the phrase here and some phrases below [LHCA]: He wanted his friends to realize that life is a journey and not a destination; that the heart must be set upon those matters of character which are eternal and not upon those matters of sensation which pass away.
Interesting precursors of the expression were in circulation in the previous century. In 1854 “The Sunday at Home: A Family Magazine for Sabbath Reading” printed a “Page for the Young” with the following advice [SHPY]:
You should learn in early youth that your life is a journey, not a rest. You are travelling to the promised land, from the cradle to the grave.
In 1855 another religious text used a variant phrase and provided an explanation [PSJC]:
All life is a journey, not a home; it is a road, not the country; and those transient enjoyments which you have in this life, lawful in their way,—those incidental and evanescent pleasures which you may sip,—are not home; they are little inns only upon the road-side of life, where you are refreshed for a moment, that you may take again the pilgrim-staff and journey on, seeking what is still before you—the rest that remaineth for the people of God.
A decade later the passage above was reprinted in a collection entitled “A Cyclopaedia of Illustrations of Moral and Religious Truths”; however, it was labeled ANON [CRJB].
Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1920 “life is a journey and not a destination” was written in a book by the pastor Lynn H. Hough as discussed previously in this article.
In 1922 another variant of the saying was printed which emphasized an experiential theme instead of a religious one [RARP]:
But we stupid mortals, or most of us, are always in haste to reach somewhere else, forgetting that the zest is in the journey and not in the destination.
In 1926 the trope was applied to the domain of love within a verse using eccentric capitalization [RDYF]:
LOVE To SOME men Is NOT a DESTINATION. It is just A FLIGHT OF FANCY. A RUSHING EMOTION between BUSINESS and AMBITION that Keeps them FOREVER ON THE HOP.
In 1929 an essay by a high school student employed a version of the saying with the word “success”. The words were enclosed in quotation marks suggesting that the adage was already in circulation [IWTP]:
You know, “success is not a destination, but a journey.”
Yet another variant of the expression was in circulation by 1930 [JASR]:
Prof J. C. Archer of Yale University will speak on “Religion a Journey and Not a Destination” at the monthly “church night” gathering at Memorial church tomorrow night.
In 1935 a story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer presented a variant [IWCP]:
“Helen, somebody has said that happiness is a journey—not a destination. You have it as you go along. You’ve been very happy with two different people.
In 1936 the book “I Knew Them in Prison” by Mary B. Harris invoked two versions of the adage at once [DPMH] [MTCM]:
Reformation, like education, is a journey, not a destination.
In 1937 another instance of the maxim about education was printed in a California newspaper [GSSD]:
Reporting on education, Mrs. S. G. Stooke said that education is a journey and not a destination, for we must keep developing.
In 1993 the rock band Aerosmith released the song Amazing as a single. The lyrics were written by Steven Tyler and Richie Supa, and they included an instance of the saying [AZAS]:
Life’s a journey not a destination
And I just can’t tell just what tomorrow brings
In the 2006 movie “Peaceful Warrior” a character named Dan Millman was led on a three-hour trek to a remote location by his mentor, a character named ‘Socrates’ who embodied a wise man archetype. Millman was excited and happy during the trip because he expected to be shown something important and when he was shown a non-descript rock he was initially disappointed. But after reflection Millman said the following to Socrates [PWJD]:
Dan Millman: The journey… the journey is what brings us happiness… not the destination.
Many of the examples above conform to the following flexible phrasal template. The linguistic term snowclone is used for these collections of related phrases:
X is a journey, not a destination.
In conclusion, current evidence indicates that the phrase under investigation is an anonymous modern proverb that entered circulation by 1920.