Tolstoy on iterative development

But their mother country was too far off, and a man who has six or seven hundred miles to walk before reaching his destination must be able to put his final goal out of his mind and say to himself that he will 'do thirty miles today and then spend the night somewhere'; and during this first stage of the journey that resting-place for the night eclipses the image of his ultimate goal and absorbs all his hopes and desires.

- Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace