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

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher

(Attributed)

Variant: "Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

Widely attributed to King, but not found in his actual writings or records of his sermons. The attribution is attested to, in particular, starting in the 1980s, by Marian Wright Edelman, a former associate of King who heard him deliver multiple speeches. Edelman provided a number of variations of the quote, and the King Center in Atlanta labeled the text provided here as a "paraphrase" (without offering anything more literal).

For more discussion of the record of this quotation, see Quote Origin: Take the First Step in Faith. You Don’t Have To See the Whole Staircase, Just Take the First Step – Quote Investigator®.