Rome wasn't built in a day
Meaning: Important things take time.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “You won't be fluent after one lesson; Rome wasn't built in a day.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A medieval French proverb, "Rome ne fu pas faite toute en un jour," passed into English by the 16th century, when John Heywood recorded it.
Equivalents in other languages
- Korean: 우물에 가 숭늉 찾는다 (Umure ga sungnyung channeunda) — literally: Going to the well to look for scorched-rice water
More idioms — Daily Life
- better late than never — It is better to do something late than not at all.
- be afraid of one's own shadow — To be very timid and easily frightened.
- a blessing in disguise — Something that seems bad at first but turns out well.
- when in Rome, do as the Romans do — Follow local customs when visiting a place.
- cut your coat according to your cloth — Live within your means.
- a guilty conscience needs no accuser — Guilty people give themselves away.
More English idioms
- bend over backwards — To make a great effort to help or please someone.
- lightning never strikes twice — An unusual event, lucky or unlucky, is unlikely to happen again in the same way.
- teach your grandmother to suck eggs — To give advice to someone who knows far more than you.
- beauty is in the eye of the beholder — What one person finds beautiful another may not.
- big deal — Said sarcastically to mean something is not important at all.
- play into someone's hands — To act in a way that unintentionally helps an opponent.
From our tongue twisters
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. — A relentless 'p' plosive drill; a peck is an old dry measure of about nine litres.
- Unique New York. — Three words that jam the 'y/n/k' sequence together — repeat it and it collapses into 'you…
- Pad kid poured curd pulled cod. — Alternating repetition — the consonants swap at the start of every other word, which is w…