# The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step



## clara mente

My sons occasionally ask me to translate well known phrases into Latin. The other day the phrase "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step" came up. My  immediate response was :_"Iter milia pasuum milia uno pasu incipit."_, but something doesn't look right here. Any insights?


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## Lamb67

Hi,Your sons' words remind me of a Chinese proverb, which is thought to be very ancient and well-known especially among school students; My try : Iter mille passus uno pasa incipit


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## vicente_romma

Lamb67 said:


> Hi,Your sons' words remind me of a Chinese proverb, which is thought to be very ancient and well-known especially among school students; My try : Iter mille passus uno pasa incipit



Confucio.-


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## Kevin Beach

This is fun, because we have to work out how to use *mille* twice.

*Mille* is indeclinable in the singular, but is declinable in the plural. It can be neatly used without *passum* to mean "miles". "Of a thousand miles" is genetive, of course. Therefore, the second use of *mille* must also be genetive plural.

There is a double *s* in *passum*.

As we are talking of a journey which is not finished, we can use *incohare* in the passive.

This is my effort:

*Iter mille millium (passuum) uno passu incohatur*.

I prefer it without the *passuum* because it sounds pithier.

You could probably make another construction using the adjective *milliarus*, but I can't work out what it would be.


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## Lamb67

.
Milium is the correct spelling instead.


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## Kevin Beach

Lamb67 said:


> .
> Milium is the correct spelling instead.


Milium and Millium are both right, according to Cassell's Latin-English dictionary.


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## Joca

And what about this?

Ambulatio mille milliarii inceptur/incohatur primo passu.


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