The proverb ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’ puts forward the notion that, however difficult a task is, you can only complete it if you first start it.

This proverbial saying is a classic of the sort that gets put onto posters and into self-help books as an inspirational thought. Many similar proverbs, for instance, the darkest hour is just before the dawn, speak softly and carry a big stick, a picture paints a thousand words etc., are wrongly assumed to have an ancient Chinese origin.

‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’ is different in that it actually was coined in China. Any saying that is associated with ancient China is generally labelled as being the work of Confucius. This one isn’t.