Slow and steady wins the race. — Aesop · Smartyfair

Slow and steady wins the race.

Aesopstoryteller · Ancient Greece (traditionally 6th century BC)Aesop is remembered as the storyteller behind hundreds of short fables — quick tales about animals like the tortoise and the hare that end with a lesson about life.5 quotes

Source not found yetPerseveranceAncientPlay

In plain words

Keeping going beats starting fast and giving up.

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Where these words come from

How sure this is: 60% sureLots of sources credit Aesop with this, and they agree with each other. The book or the speech it first came from hasn't turned up yet.
What turned up: The Tortoise and the Hare (Aesop, Perry Index 226) is genuine, but the pithy English phrase is a later paraphrase — the original Greek moral reads differently.
Sources checked: fablesofaesop.comChecked using claude-sonnet-5, 20 August 2026
gutenberg.orgChecked using claude-fable-5, 22 August 2026Three Hundred Aesop's Fables, trans. George Fyler Townsend (public domain; full text grepped 2026-08-22). Printed moral of The Hare and the Tortoise: 'Slow but steady wins the race.' — stored text is the popular variant ('and' for 'but'). The moral line is Townsend's English, not Aesop's Greek.

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More from Aesop

Union gives strength.

Aesop In critical moments even the very powerful have need of the weakest.

Aesop It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.

Aesop No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

More on perseverance

It ain't over till it's over.

Yogi Berra I'm proud of myself for the way I pushed through and even learned that dismount.

Simone Biles It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

Confucius Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

Lao Tzu Patience is the key to relief.Arabic proverb Drops of water hollow out a stone.