Qui va piano va sano
Meaning: Slow and steady is the surer way.
Language: French
Literally: Who goes gently goes safely
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Kept in Italian in French, from the fuller qui va piano va sano e va lontano — and goes far. Italian musical vocabulary made piano legible to French speakers without translation.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Prendre le train onze — To go on foot.
- Vieux comme Mathusalem — Extremely old.
- Mettre à pied — To suspend someone from their duties.
- Jeter la première pierre — To be the first to condemn someone.
- Avoir pignon sur rue — To be soundly established, with a visible and respectable position.
- Jouer à pile ou face — To decide by tossing a coin.
More French idioms
- Comme un poisson dans l'eau — Completely at ease in one's element.
- Tuer la poule aux œufs d'or — To destroy a source of steady profit out of greed for all of it at once.
- Écrire un poulet à quelqu'un — To send a love letter.
- À la queue leu leu — In single file, one behind another.
- Avoir la queue entre les jambes — To slink off humiliated.
- Manger à tous les râteliers — To take advantage from all sides at once, with no loyalty to any.
From our compliments & insults
- Tu as du chien — You have a certain irresistible magnetism — a je-ne-sais-quoi that draws people in.
- Tu as la tête sur les épaules — You're grounded, sensible, and dependable — not easily swept off course.
- Tu as le vent en poupe — Everything is going your way — you're riding a wave of momentum and success.
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