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the journey of a thousand li commenced with a single step

Confuciusmisattributed·The Tao Teh King, or the Tao and its Characteristics (trans. James Legge)·1891

Wrongly attributed

Not Confucius. The line is from the Tao Teh King, a different book by a different school, traditionally ascribed to Laozi -- a figure whose very existence historians doubt. Two things drift in the popular version: li becomes miles, and commenced becomes begins with. Legge's 1891 translation, the standard English text for a century, says neither.