I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. was a prominent American physician, poet, and writer of prose, perhaps best known for his “Breakfast-Table” series of essays, originally published in “The Atlantic Monthly” in 1857 and later collectively printed under the title “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table.” The essays are a series of what the Smithsonian Libraries describes as “dramedy vignettes,” written as conversations between an unnamed author and residents of a New England boarding house. The topics range widely, encompassing everything from human nature to society, religion, and the art of conversation itself, with the tone shifting from the philosophical to the comedic. This quote from the series has echoes of the popular anonymous proverb, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” Both remind us that progress — and perhaps even happiness — isn’t necessarily about where we are, but where we’re headed and the steps we take to get there.