ProverbWisdom
American origin20th c.
American origin20th c.Hindsight is 20/20
Meaning: Past decisions are always clearer in retrospect.
Origin: "20/20" is the measure of normal eyesight on the eye chart devised by the Dutch ophthalmologist Herman Snellen in 1862: seeing at 20 feet what a normal eye sees at 20 feet. By the 1940s American slang used "twenty-twenty" to mean excellent, and "20/20 hindsight" — seeing clearly, too late, what should have been done — followed in the decades after.
Equivalents in French, Japanese, German, Italian, Russian, and 2 more languages
French: Avec des si, on mettrait Paris en bouteille (literally: With 'ifs,' you could put Paris in a bottle)
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)
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