The wheels of justice turn slowly
Meaning: Justice takes time but eventually arrives.
Origin: A modern form of an ancient saying. The Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus (c. AD 200) quotes an older line of verse, already a popular saying, that the mills of the gods grind slowly, but grind fine, and Longfellow's translation of Friedrich von Logau made it famous in English: "Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small."
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
- French: La justice a des ailes lentes (literally: Justice has slow wings)
- Spanish: La justicia tarda pero llega (literally: Justice is slow but it arrives)
- Japanese: 天網恢恢疎にして漏らさず (Tenmō kaikai so ni shite morasazu) (literally: Heaven's net is wide, but nothing escapes it)
- German: Gottes Mühlen mahlen langsam, aber sicher (literally: God's mills grind slowly, but surely)
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