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Who really said it

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

Written by Lao Tzu Traditionally 6th century BC · the figure to whom the Tao Te Ching is ascribed
Verified Free to reuse

This one is real. The sentence closes the second paragraph of chapter 64 of the Tao Te Ching, and it reads in Chinese 千里之行，始於足下. James Legge’s 1891 translation ↗ gives it as “the journey of a thousand li commenced with a single step”. Two things drifted on the way to the version people quote. A li is not a mile — it is roughly a third of one — so “a thousand miles” triples the distance Laozi wrote. And the Chinese 始於足下 says the journey begins beneath one’s feet; “with a single step” is already Legge’s interpretation of that. The thought is his, the source is certain, and the English is a century of polishing.

Last verified 3 Oct 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” Lao Tzu — “The journey of a thousand li commenced with a single step.” Tao Te Ching, ch. 64, trans. James Legge (1891). The familiar “thousand miles… single step” is a modernised rendering; the Chinese says “begins beneath one's feet.” Via quotle.info

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Provenance

The source

Work
Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing), chapter 64
Original
千里之行，始於足下 — qiān lǐ zhī xíng shǐ yú zú xià
Literal sense
A journey of a thousand li begins beneath one’s feet
Translation shown
James Legge, 1891 — Sacred Books of the East, vol. 39, pp. 107–108
Text dated
Not securely datable; traditionally 6th century BC, linguistically argued as late as the 4th century BC

The tree which fills the arms grew from the tiniest sprout; the tower of nine storeys rose from a (small) heap of earth; the journey of a thousand li commenced with a single step. Chapter 64, paragraph 2

Legge’s 1891 wording, transcribed from the Project Gutenberg text of his translation ↗ and checked against the scanned 1891 Clarendon Press volume ↗, where the clause falls across pages 107 and 108. The parentheses and the italic li are Legge’s own. Note that the famous sentence is the third in a series of three — the sprout, the heap of earth, then the journey — which is how the chapter builds its point.

The Tao Teh King, trans. James Legge (Project Gutenberg)

How we verified this

  • The Chinese text was read directly: Chinese Wikisource’s Wang Bi recension of the 道德經 ↗ carries chapter 64 as “九層之臺，起於累土；千里之行，始於足下” — the tower of nine storeys from a heap of earth, then the thousand-li journey from beneath the feet.
  • The English shown here is Legge’s. Project Gutenberg’s text of The Tao Teh King ↗ gives chapter 64 paragraph 2 ending “the journey of a thousand li commenced with a single step”. The same sentence appears in the Internet Archive’s scan of the 1891 original ↗, whose catalogue record gives the publisher as the Clarendon Press, Oxford, and the date as 1891.
  • Wikiquote’s Laozi page ↗ files the line under Chapter 64 with the Chinese, the pinyin and the gloss “A journey of a thousand li starts with a single step”, lists the “miles” forms as variant translations, and adds that the saying is “often misattributed to Confucius”.
  • Wikipedia’s article on the saying ↗ states the literal meaning as “A journey of a thousand li starts beneath one’s feet” and notes the alternative English renderings “begins from under the feet” and “begins where one stands”.
Public domain

Public domain, on both counts. The Chinese original is ancient. The English shown is James Legge’s translation, first published in 1891 by the Clarendon Press at Oxford as volume 39 of the Sacred Books of the East — four decades before the 1931 US public-domain cutoff, and Legge himself died in 1897. Quote it freely. One caution: the exact sentence most people reproduce (“a thousand miles… begins with a single step”) is not Legge’s and is not traceable to any one pre-1931 edition, so if you need a citable text, use Legge’s wording rather than the popular one.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

What to watch for

The attribution is sound, so nothing here refutes Lao Tzu. Two things are nonetheless worth knowing: the saying is regularly pinned on the wrong Chinese philosopher, and the English everyone quotes has drifted twice from what the Chinese says.

Confucius Wrong philosopher

Wikiquote records the line as “often misattributed to Confucius” ↗. It is a Taoist sentence from the Tao Te Ching, not a Confucian one from the Analects; the two men are routinely swapped in English-language quote collections because both read as “ancient Chinese sage”.

“miles” standing in for 千里 (a thousand li) Modern wording

The Chinese is 千里 — a thousand li. A li “has varied considerably over time but was usually about one third of an English mile” ↗, so the English version silently inflates the distance to roughly three times what the text says. Wikiquote lists the “miles” forms as variant translations ↗, not as the reading.

“begins with a single step” for 始於足下 Translation, not the original

始於足下 says the journey begins beneath one’s feet — the emphasis is on where you already are, not on the act of stepping. Wikipedia gives the literal sense as “starts beneath one’s feet” ↗. “A single step” is Legge’s 1891 gloss, which then hardened into the quotation.

So: genuinely Lao Tzu, genuinely chapter 64, and documented in a public-domain translation you can read in full ↗ — but the memorable English is a translator’s sentence as much as a philosopher’s.

Context

Why it mattered

Chapter 64 is about acting early and acting small. The three images run in order — the arm-filling tree that was once a sprout, the nine-storey tower that was once a heap of earth, the thousand-li journey that began underfoot — and they are not motivational posters. They are an argument that large outcomes are already decided by small, unglamorous beginnings, which is why the chapter’s advice is to deal with things before they become things.

The modern reading has quietly reversed the emphasis. “Begins with a single step” is a call to action: take the step. “Begins beneath one’s feet” is closer to an observation about location: the journey is not elsewhere, it is where you are standing. The first is a slogan, the second is Taoism.

A journey of a thousand li begins beneath one’s feet.

Read the full story

Who wrote it is a separate question from whether the line is in the book, and the honest answer is that the line is certainly in the book and the author is traditional. Wikipedia summarises the scholarship ↗: “Modern scholars remain divided over his identity, dates, and precise relationship to the received text: some regard the traditional Laozi as largely or wholly legendary, while others consider a historical Lao Dan plausible.” Traditional accounts place him in the 6th century BC state of Chu and describe him as keeper of the archives at the Zhou court; linguistic dating of the text itself has been argued as late as the 4th century BC. This page credits Lao Tzu because that is who the Tao Te Ching is ascribed to, not because a biography has been verified.

If you want a citable text, Legge’s is the one to use and it is free: the Clarendon Press published it in 1891 in the Sacred Books of the East, and both the scan and a clean transcription are linked above. Chapter 64 is short, and the sentence makes much more sense read with the sprout and the heap of earth in front of it.

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Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

The Tao Teh King, trans. James Legge (full text)www.gutenberg.org

Legge’s complete 1891 translation, free to read. Chapter 64 carries the sentence.
The Sacred Books of China: The Texts of Taoism (1891 scan)archive.org

The scanned Clarendon Press original, volume 39. The clause sits across pages 107 and 108.
道德經 (王弼本) — the Chinese originalzh.wikisource.org

Chapter 64 in the Wang Bi recension, where the line reads 千里之行，始於足下.
Laozi — sourced quotationsen.wikiquote.org

Files the line under Chapter 64 with pinyin and variant translations, and flags the Confucius mix-up.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single stepen.wikipedia.org

The saying’s own article, with the literal reading “starts beneath one’s feet”.
Laozien.wikipedia.org

What is and is not known about the man, including the divided scholarship on his historicity.

The author

About Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu

Traditionally 6th century BC · Chinese philosopher, ascribed author of the Tao Te Ching

Lao Tzu (also Laozi, 老子, “the old master”) is the figure to whom the Tao Te Ching is traditionally ascribed, and the founding name of Taoism. Traditional accounts put him in the 6th century BC state of Chu and make him keeper of the archives at the Zhou royal court, where legend has him meeting a younger Confucius. Modern scholarship is genuinely split: some historians treat him as largely or wholly legendary, others think a historical figure called Lao Dan plausible, and the dating of the text is argued separately from the dating of the man — linguistic analysis has placed the received Tao Te Ching as late as the 4th century BC.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

Laozi, The Tâo Teh King, chap. 64, in The Sacred Books of China: The Texts of Tâoism, Part I, trans. James Legge, Sacred Books of the East 39 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891), 107–8. Chinese text: 道德經 (王弼本), chap. 64, Chinese Wikisource.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’?” Last verified 3 Oct 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/a-journey-of-a-thousand-miles-begins-with-a-single-step/

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