Works and Days

Small steps add up

Earliest we can find

This is the earliest source we can find for the idea. Said again in 4 books on our list: Laozi (attributed), Tao Te Ching (c. 300 BCE), Samuel Smiles, Self-Help (1859), Robert Maurer, One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way (2004) and James Clear, Atomic Habits (2018).

1. “for if you add only a little to a little and do this often, soon that little will become great.”