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Who really said it

Walk far enough and you will meet yourself, coming the other way

Written by Terry Pratchett 1948–2015 · English author of the Discworld novels
Verified In copyright

The exact wording appears in The Discworld Companion (Gollancz, 1994), which Pratchett co-wrote with Stephen Briggs, in the entry on the caves of Lancre. Pratchett did not invent the idea: Quote Investigator ↗ finds the saying “If you walk far enough you’ll meet yourself” already in circulation by 1895, and nobody knows who first said it.

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

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Verified quote & credit

“Walk far enough and you will meet yourself, coming the other way” Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs, The Discworld Companion (Gollancz, 1994), entry “Lancre”. The saying itself is older and anonymous, in print by 1895.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by The estate of Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs (publisher: Victor Gollancz)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Terry Pratchett — English author, humorist & satirist. Theme: "Walk far enough and you will meet yourself, coming the other way". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Walk far enough and you will meet yourself, coming the other way". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Work
The Discworld Companion
Authors
Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs
First published
1994, Victor Gollancz, London
Entry / page
“Lancre”, p. 138 (per Quote Investigator)

The caves are rumoured to run everywhere in the kingdom; it is widely believed that there is a secret entrance in the castle. But they are also one of those features that are not bound by the laws of time and space. Travel far enough in the caves and you will find mythical kings, asleep with their warriors; you will hear the roar of the Minotaur and the sheep of the Cyclops. Walk far enough and you will meet yourself, coming the other way … From the entry on Lancre

Text as transcribed by Quote Investigator from scans of the 1994 Gollancz edition. The popular quote leaves off the closing ellipsis and everything about the caves, which is why it now reads as a travel or self-discovery saying instead of a joke about magic.

The Discworld Companion (Gollancz, 1994) at the Internet Archive

How we traced it

  • Quote Investigator (2022) ↗ traces the whole family of “meet yourself” sayings. It quotes this exact sentence from The Discworld Companion (1994), “Topic: Lancre, Quote Page 138,” and marks it verified with scans.
  • The Internet Archive’s scan of the 1994 Gollancz edition ↗ is catalogued under Terry Pratchett, with Stephen Briggs as an associated name. A full-text search of the scan returns the sentence word for word, right after the Minotaur and Cyclops lines.
  • Wikipedia ↗ describes the Companion as an encyclopedia of the Discworld created by Pratchett and Briggs, first published by Gollancz in 1994 and reissued in later editions.
  • The same sentence carries on into later editions, including the Internet Archive’s scan of Turtle Recall: The Discworld Companion … So Far (William Morrow, 2014) ↗.
In copyright

This wording comes from The Discworld Companion, first published in 1994. That is well after 1931, so the book is still in copyright in the United States. The short anonymous saying it builds on (“If you walk far enough you’ll meet yourself”) is common phrasing from at least the 1890s and belongs to no 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

Who else gets the credit

This line really does appear in a Pratchett book. The story around it gets garbled, though. People treat it as an original Pratchett insight, and close variants are pinned on other writers.

Terry Pratchett Used it, didn’t coin it

The popular wording comes from his 1994 Companion, co-written with Stephen Briggs. But Quote Investigator ↗ found the saying in The Boston Post in 1895, where a speaker called it “the story they tell.” QI concludes that the originator is unknown.

Joseph Campbell Unsupported

Goodreads cites Campbell’s Myths to Live By, but Quote Investigator ↗ searched that book and the quotation is not in it.

Marion Woodman Her own variant

The Jungian analyst wrote a different version in Addiction to Perfection (1982), which Quote Investigator ↗ verified with scans. She wrote it after the saying was already in use, and it is not Pratchett’s sentence.

David Mitchell Later echo

In Cloud Atlas (2004) the phrase is used as a password, according to Quote Investigator ↗. That is ten years after the Companion and long after the saying first appeared.

The words “Walk far enough and you will meet yourself, coming the other way” come from The Discworld Companion (1994) by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs. The idea behind them is an anonymous saying that Quote Investigator ↗ finds in circulation by 1895.

Context

What it meant on the page

In the Companion the line is not advice about life. It closes a description of the caves under Lancre, the small mountain kingdom where Pratchett’s witches live. The entry says the caves “are not bound by the laws of time and space”: go deep enough and you find sleeping kings, the Minotaur and the sheep of the Cyclops. Meeting yourself is the last and strangest stop on that tour.

Cut loose from that context and stripped of its trailing ellipsis, the sentence now travels as a saying about self-discovery. That is close to how the older anonymous saying was used, which Quote Investigator ↗ finds applied to winding Boston streets, recycled fashions and political circles long before Discworld.

Walk far enough and you will meet yourself, coming the other way …

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Growth Wisdom

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.

Quote Origin: If You Walk Far Enough You’ll Meet Yourselfquoteinvestigator.com

The anchor research: earliest close match in 1895, plus the Companion text verified with scans
The Discworld Companion (1994)archive.org

Scan of the Gollancz first edition (borrowable), catalogued with its publisher and date
Turtle Recall: The Discworld Companion … So Far (2014)archive.org

A later edition that keeps the same sentence
The Discworld Companionen.wikipedia.org

Co-authorship with Stephen Briggs and the book’s publishing history
Terry Pratchetten.wikipedia.org

Biography of the author
Marion Woodmanen.wikipedia.org

The Jungian author of Addiction to Perfection, source of a separate variant

The author

About Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

1948–2015 · English author, humorist & satirist

Sir Terry Pratchett was an English author, humorist and satirist. He is best known for the Discworld series of 41 comic fantasy novels, published between 1983 and 2015, and for Good Omens (1990), which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman. With Stephen Briggs he also compiled The Discworld Companion, an encyclopedia of the Discworld that has been updated through several editions.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Cite the source

Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs, The Discworld Companion (London: Victor Gollancz, 1994), s.v. “Lancre,” 138.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Walk far enough and you will meet yourself, coming the other way’?” Last verified 3 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/walk-far-enough-and-you-will-meet-yourself-coming-the-other/

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