Take time by the forelock.
Meaning: Seizing opportunities requires swift action before they slip away or pass beyond your grasp.
Origin: The Greeks pictured Opportunity, Kairos, with a long lock of hair hanging over his forehead and a bald head behind: you could seize him as he came toward you, but once he had passed there was nothing to grab. The Roman fabulist Phaedrus described Opportunity this way, Renaissance emblem books spread the picture, and English applied it to Time itself.
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
- French: Prendre l’occasion aux cheveux (literally: To take opportunity by the forelock)
- Spanish: Tomar la ocasion por los cabellos (literally: To take opportunity by the forelock)
- Japanese: 善は急げ (Zen wa isoge) (literally: Hurry to do good)
- German: Man muss die Gelegenheit beim Schopfe packen (literally: One must grab opportunity by the forelock)
More proverbs about Perseverance
- Time assuages the greatest grief. — Prolonged suffering diminishes naturally as days pass, healing wounds that seem unbearabl…
- Never fish in troubled waters. — Pursuing opportunities amid chaos or conflict will likely yield poor results and entangle…
- Never make troubles of trifles. — Small annoyances magnified through worry waste energy better spent on genuine problems.
- Where there's a will, there's a way — Determination will help you find a solution.
- Practice makes perfect — Repeated practice leads to mastery.
- Fall seven times, get up eight — Perseverance is the key to mastery and resilience.
From our false friends
- Sensible — Actually means 'sensitive'. For sensible/level-headed, say raisonnable.
- Librairie — Actually means 'bookshop'. A library is une bibliothèque.
- Constipado — Actually means 'having a head cold'. Estoy constipado = I have a cold.