ProverbWisdomFrench origin

Avec des si, on mettrait Paris en bouteille

Meaning: Speculating about what might have been is pointless.

Literally: With 'ifs,' you could put Paris in a bottle

Example: “« Si j'avais acheté ces actions il y a dix ans… » — Avec des si, on mettrait Paris en bouteille.” — "If only I'd bought those shares ten years ago..." Hindsight is 20/20.

Equivalents in English, Japanese, German, Italian, Russian, and 2 more languages

  • English: Hindsight is 20/20
  • Japanese: 下種の後知恵 (Gesu no atojie) (literally: A lowly person's wisdom after the fact)
  • German: Hinterher ist man immer klüger (literally: Afterwards one is always wiser)
  • Italian: Del senno di poi son piene le fosse (literally: The graves are full of wisdom after the fact)
  • Russian: Русский человек задним умом крепок (Russkiy chelovek zadnim umom krepok) (literally: A Russian is strong in hindsight)
  • Polish: Mądry Polak po szkodzie (literally: A Pole is wise after the damage)
  • Chinese: 事后诸葛亮 (Shìhòu Zhūgě Liàng) (literally: A Zhuge Liang after the event)

Origin: With enough ifs anything becomes possible, even fitting Paris into a bottle. It is the standard French reply to a sentence that starts with "if only."

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