Possibly a misattribution, ascribed to Reade in Notes and Queries (9th Series) vol. 12, 17 October 1903. It appears (as an un-sourced quotation) in Life and Labor (1887) by Samuel Smiles and in the front of The Power of Womanhood by Ellice Hopkins (1899) ISBN 1421956128 as well as in the text (i.e., as part of the text, and not in quotation marks) in both (1909) R. Dimsdale Stocker, Brain-Culture or Phrenometry: Auto-Suggestion and Cerebral Stimulation, What It Is, and How It's Done (Second, Revised Edition), L.N. Fowler, (London), and (1919) Youth and Sex by Mary Scharlieb and F. Arthur Sibly ISBN 1414250800.
Apparently a common saying in 19th century. It has been also attributed to an “old Chinese proverb”, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863), George Dana Boardman (1828-1903), Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (1839-1898), James Allen (1864-1912), Marcus Fabius Quintilianus and William James. | No original source has ever been isolated. Its structure strongly reflects that of a "classical Chinese" set of aphorisms; and it may have been deliberately constructed in that form, by a non-Chinese, to imply an oriental (and, perhaps, far wiser) origin. | Finally, almost all of those who cite the complete piece | We sow a thought and reap an act | We sow an act and reap a habit | We sow a habit and reap a character | We sow a character and reap a destiny. | state that, in their view, it was written to expand and embellish the notion that was expressed at Proverbs XXIII:7 ("For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he"). | Also, there is a similar sentence pattern in For Want of a Nail.
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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Charles Reade (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.