Thompson is not exactly saying that the journey is more important than the destination; he's saying that as we grow and change and experience different things,

Thompson is not exactly saying that the journey is more important than the destination; he's saying that as we grow and change and experience different things, we become another person, and therefore the destination is irrelevant. The goal we may have had when we started, doesn't change, but we do, and so it's unlikely that we desire it as much as we did or thought we did. We can't "make it" because there is indeed no destination. The meaning of life is to grow.