ProverbWisdomSpanish originc. 1500

When one door shuts another opens.

Meaning: Loss creates unexpected opportunities; closing one path often reveals alternatives previously unseen.

Origin: The saying came from Spain. Fernando de Rojas's La Celestina (c. 1500) says that when one door closes, fortune usually opens another. It reached English in the 1586 translation of the Spanish novel Lazarillo de Tormes, and again in the 1620 English translation of Don Quixote. It is offered as consolation after a loss — some other opportunity will come.

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