“According to the ancient Chinese proverb, "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." My fellow Americans, let us take that first step. Let us, if we can, step back from the shadows of war and seek out the way of peace. And if that journey is a thousand miles, or even more, let history record that we, in this land, at this time, took the first step.”

http://cerebusfangirl.com/artists/0805talk.php

As quoted in Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1977) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 508; this begins with a phrase derived from one in the Tao Te Ching, by Laozi

Go Rin No Sho (1645), The Water Book

“Walking” p. 205
The Journey Home (1977)
Context: The longest journey begins with a single step, not with the turn of an ignition key. That’s the best thing about walking, the journey itself. It doesn’t much matter whether you get where you’re going or not. You’ll get there anyway. Every good hike brings you eventually back home. Right where you started.

Source: Howl's Moving Castle

Source: Physics and Politics http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/phypl10.txt (1869), Ch. 2, The Use of Conflict
Context: The great difficulty which history records is not that of the first step, but that of the second step. What is most evident is not the difficulty of getting a fixed law, but getting out of a fixed law; not of cementing (as upon a former occasion I phrased it) a cake of custom, but of breaking the cake of custom; not of making the first preservative habit, but of breaking through it, and reaching something better.

As quoted in "Xi calls for peaceful development of cross-Straits ties" http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013xiapec/2013-10/06/content_17011186.htm in China Daily (6 October 2013).
2010s

Source: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment