Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

No contemporary King text or recording for this wording was established. The atlas holds no full-text King corpus; I checked its existing dossiers, the Wikiquote page, and Quote Investigator’s dedicated investigation rather than claiming a comprehensive search of his writings. Quote Investigator’s earliest published evidence is Deena Mirow’s interview with Marian Wright Edelman in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, 30 March 1986, p. 21: she recalled King introducing the idea of a partly unseen stairway, without quoting this sentence directly. In a May–June 1991 Mother Jones article, Edelman supplied the longer direct-quotation form beginning Take the first step in faith. The compact Faith is taking form is documented there in a 2006 Reader’s Digest anthology. Those underlying publications were not inspected here. This is an unverified exact wording, not a demonstrated fabrication: Edelman knew King, and Quote Investigator regards her testimony as substantive, though uncertain.

1. 30 March 1986Before it · credited to Martin Luther King Jr., recalled by Marian Wright EdelmanThe earliest located published recollection of the stairway saying: Edelman recalled that King introduced her to taking a step without seeing the whole stairway. This was not a direct quotation of the later compact aphorism.Deena Mirow, Fighting for kids is a full-time job, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Living–Panorama, 30 March 1986, p. 21. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
2. 1991Before it · credited to Martin Luther King Jr., recalled by Marian Wright EdelmanIn a May–June magazine article, Edelman attributed a longer first-step and staircase formulation directly to King. This is the earliest direct-quotation wording located by the cited investigation, not a contemporary King document.Marian Wright Edelman, Kids First!, Mother Jones, May–June 1991, p. 77. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
3. 2006Earliest found · credited to Martin Luther King Jr.A Reader’s Digest anthology printed the compact Faith is taking formulation under King’s name; this is the earliest located evidence here for this exact compact wording.Jeff Bredenberg, compiler, Treasury of Wit & Wisdom: 4,000 of the Funniest, Cleverest, Most Insightful Things Ever Said, Reader’s Digest Association, 2006, p. 46, column 2. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source

A widely circulated saying credited to King, often used to encourage a first step without certainty about what follows. The evidence is not a contemporary King manuscript or recording but Marian Wright Edelman’s later recollections of hearing him speak. Her accounts support the underlying image while giving more than one wording.

Faith makes action possible before the whole route or outcome is visible.

Faith, Change, Courage, Wisdom

• Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. (not found) Seneca the Younger
• It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. (misattributed) Mark Twain
• The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. (misattributed) Epicurus
• The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. (misattributed) Epictetus
• Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. (misattributed) Ralph Waldo Emerson

• quoteinvestigator.com/2019/04/18/staircase

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Attributed to Martin Luther King Jr.. No. The exact wording is unverified, not proved fake. Its evidence comes from Marian Wright Edelman’s posthumous recollections of King, first located by Quote Investigator in 1986, rather than a contemporary King text or recording. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/faith-is-taking-the-first-step/ (checked 26 October 2026).

Have a different wording, or a source we missed? Check it or submit it.

Do you hold the rights to anything on this page? Tell us.