Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Saying ·240 of 348
"Rome wasn't built in a day."
They never said that.
What people say
"Rome wasn't built in a day."
What was actually said
"Rome ne fu[t] pas faite toute en un jour." French proverb — Li Proverbe au Vilain, c. 1190
Why it stuck
The English form enters the record via John Heywood's Dialogue of Proverbs (1546) — roughly 350 years after the French original. The proverb is often deployed to defend slow progress; it began as a remark on the civic labour of empire.
The modern extension "but it burned in a day" has no pre-21st century source.
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.