A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. It is said that walking a thousand miles starts with taking the first step. It is a metaphor that things are started from scratch and carried out step by step. The words come from Chapter 64 of Laozi's "Tao Te Ching": "The tree that hugs each other is born from the smallest grain; the nine-story platform starts from the base soil; the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

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It is stable and easy to maintain, its lack of warning is easy to plan; its brittle and easy to collapse, its weak and easy to scatter. Do it before it exists, and fix it before it is in chaos. The tree that hugs each other is born from the smallest grain; the nine-story platform starts from the base soil; the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Those who do it will fail, and those who insist will lose it. This is because the sage has no motives and therefore has no failures, and has no attachments and therefore has no failures. People often succeed and fail in their pursuits. If you are as careful as you are at the end, you will never fail. Therefore, the sage does not desire, does not value hard-to-find goods, does not learn from others, repeats the mistakes of others, and does not dare to do anything in order to support the nature of all things. Selected from "Laozi·Taodejing·Chapter 64"

Story

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the famous philosopher Laozi put forward the principle of being cautious and prudent and starting from the beginning based on the law of development of things. He advocated that problems should be dealt with before they happen. The country should be governed before it is in chaos. The big trees that hug each other are grown from tiny saplings, the nine-story high platform is made of baskets of soil, and the journey of thousands of miles starts from the feet.