As with most other ancient Chinese thinkers, Lao Tzu's way of explaining his ideas often uses paradox, analogy, appropriation of ancient sayings, repetition, symmetry, rhyme and rhythm. The writings attributed to him are poetical and dense. In this quote, Lao Tzu is trying to express that great things start from humble beginnings. In the original, the text refers to "1,000 li journey". A li is an old Chinese measure of distance which converts to 360 miles or 576 km.e.
