Language: en
Meaning: (idiomatic)Ittakesalongtimetocreatesomethingcomplicatedorimpressive.Antonym:Rome wasn't burned in a dayI know this project is a big undertaking, but you need to have patience and be hopeful. Remember thatRome wasn’t built in a day.1545August 20 (Gregorian calendar),Erasmus, “Vna hirundo non facit ver[One swallow does not make it spring]”, inRichard Taverner, transl.,Proverbes or Adagies Gathered out of the Chiliades of Erasmus[…], new edition, London:Edwardus Whytchurche[…]; to be sel[…]by Wyllyam Telotson,→OCLC,folio xxv, verso:[O]ne daye or lytle tyme is not ynoughe for the acheuinge of a great matter. Which is al one with this in engliſhe:Rome was not buylt in one day.1546,John Heywood, chapter XI, in Julian Sharman, editor,The Proverbs of John Heywood.[…], London:George Bell and Sons,[…], published1874,→OCLC, part I,pages64–65:Rome was not built in one day(quoth he), and yet stood / Till it was finisht, as some say, full fayre.The spelling has been modernized.1610,Jos[eph] Hall, “Section XXV. What Separation England hath Made.”, inA Common Apologie of the Church of England: Against the Uniust Challenges of the Ouer-iust Sect, Commonly Called Brownists.[…], London:[…][William Stansby] for Samuel Macham,[…],→OCLC, marginal note,page63:The Reformation you haue made of the many and maine corruptions of the Romiſh Ch[urch] vve do ingenuouſly acknovvledge, and doe vvithall imbrace vvith you all the truths vvhich to our knovvledge you haue receiued in ſtead of them. ButRome vvas not built all in a day.1663,Edward Waterhous[e], chapter XXIX, inFortescutus Illustratus; or A Commentary on that Nervous Treatise De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, Written by SirJohn FortescueKnight,[…], London:[…]Tho[mas]Roycroft for Thomas Dicas[…],→OCLC,page375:[…]Romevvas not built in a day, nor is a Reformation in the true Lavv-ſenſe effectable preſently;[…]1748, [Tobias Smollett], “I Cultivate an Acquaintance with Two Noblemen[…]”, inThe Adventures of Roderick Random.[…], volume II, London:[…][William Strahan] for J[ohn]Osborn[…],→OCLC,page173:[Y]ou muſt lay your account vvith mounting by gradual ſteps to the ſummit of your fortune.—Rome vvas not built in a day,—[…]1804,W[illiam] Dunlap, “The Wife of Two Husbands. A Drama,[…]”, inThe English and American Stage, volume III, New York, N.Y.:[…]D. Longworth,[…], published1807,→OCLC, Act I, scene i,page 4:But, "Rome wasent built in a day," nor will one thump of the pate make a soldier.1822May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter X, inThe Fortunes of Nigel.[…], volume II, Edinburgh:[…][James Ballantyne and Co.] forArchibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co.,→OCLC,pages237–238:[T]hou must have patience.Rome was not built in a day—you cannot become used to your court-suit in a month's time, any more than when you changed your long coat for a doublet and hose;[…]1823, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter I, inThe Pioneers, or The Sources of the Susquehanna;[…], volume II, New York, N.Y.:Charles Wiley;[…],→OCLC,page17:Rome wasn't built in a day, nor, for that matter, Templetown 'ither, though it may be said to be a quick-growing place.1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym;Charlotte Brontë], “Coriolanus”, inShirley. A Tale.[…], volume I, London:Smith, Elder and Co.,[…],→OCLC,page123:"AsRome," it was suggested, "had not been built in a day,["]so neither had Mademoiselle Gérard Moore's education been completed in a week, or by merelywishingto be clever. It was effort that had accomplished that great work:[…]1960March 7, George Todt, “George Todt’s opinion: Civil rights fate uncertain”, inValley Times, home edition, volume23, number57, North Hollywood, Calif.: Robert N. Weed,→OCLC,page14, column 6:Rome wasn't built in a dayand the path of black and white relationships in the South won't be solved overnight, either.2000, Paul Godfrey, Ross Godfrey,Skye Edwards, “Rome Wasn't Built In a Day”, inFragments of Freedom, performed byMorcheeba:One fine day / We'll fly away / Don't you know thatRome wasn't built in a day?2010January 22,[unidentified questioner], “Remarks at a Town Hall Meeting and a Question-and-answer Session in Elyria, Ohio”, inPublic Papers of the Presidents of the United States:Barack Obama: 2010[…], book I (January 1 to June 30, 2010), Washington, D.C.:Office of the Federal Register,National Archives and Records Administration;United States Government Printing Office, published2013,→OCLC,page61, column 1:I feel likeRome wasn't built in a day, and I know that everybody is really impatient, but I know that with time things can be turned around.2014August,Roger Sutton, “A Blank Canvas for New Beginnings”, in Barnaby Bennett, James Dann, Emma Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, editors,Once in a Lifetime: City-building after Disaster in Christchurch, Christchurch: Freerange Press,→ISBN,page54:I actually believe in some respects we may be in danger of working too quickly, simply to address that perception. As the ridiculously over-used cliché notes,Rome was not built in a day. What I do accept is that the 100-day project that saw the new city plan designed was done at breakneck speed. This was a phenomenally challenging time frame but absolutely crucial. For a community still suffering, still shocked, and literally still shaking, there clearly needed to be a plan put in place as quickly as possible.
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