The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (469 page)

Cf. medieval Fr.
Rome ne fut pas faite toute en un jour
, Rome was not made in one day.
1545
tr.
Erasmus' Adages
(ed. 2) D1
^V
Rome was not buylt in one daye.
1546
Dialogue of Proverbs
I
. xi. D4
Rome was not bylt on a daie (quoth he) and yet stood Tyll it was fynysht.
1646
in
Publications of Prince Society
(1865) I. 236
Rome was not built in a day … Let them produce any colonie .. where more hath been done in 16 yeares.
1849
Shirley
I. vi.
As Rome .. had not been built in a day, so neither had Mademoiselle Gerard Moore's education been completed in a week.
1941
Trap for Bellamy
iv.
Life is what you make it. Rome wasn't built in a day.
1979
Daily Telegraph
16 Nov. 18
Rome was not built in a day and artistic enterprise must for the moment remain the privilege of those who live in major centres.
haste
;
patience and impatience

 
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see also all
ROADS lead to Rome
;
it is ill SITTING at Rome and striving with the Pope
.

 
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The remark is popularly attributed to the American politician Daniel Webster (1782–1852); it was his riposte after he had been advised against joining the legal profession on the grounds that it was already overcrowded.
1900
Letter
2 Apr. (1920) II. 121
Verily there is room at the top. S—seems to be the only Britisher worth thinking of.
1914
Price of Love
vii.
The Imperial had set out to be the most gorgeous cinema in the five Towns; and it simply was. Its advertisements read; ‘There is always room at the top.’
1933
Sheppey
III
. 89
You have to be pretty smart with all the competition there is nowadays …There's always room at the top.
1957
Room at Top
xxviii.
You're the sort of young man we want. There's always room at the top.
1980
Middle Ground
140
There's room at the top, maybe, but only for the clever ones.
ambition

 
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see
CURSES, like chickens, come home to roost
.

 
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