人无千日好

人無千日好
rén wú qiān rì hǎo
quotation

Meanings

  1. 1 no person enjoys a thousand days of good fortune
  2. 2 nobody's luck lasts forever (paired with 花无百日红 - no flower stays red for a hundred days)

Examples

HSK 5
Bié yǐwéi yìzhí shùnfēng shùn shuǐ, rénwúqiānrìhǎo a.
Don't assume smooth sailing forever - no one gets a thousand lucky days.
HSK 7-9
Lǎohuà shuō rénwúqiānrìhǎo, huāwúbǎirìhóng, yào liú hòulù.
The old saying goes 'no one has a thousand lucky days, no flower blooms red for a hundred' - leave yourself a way out.

Tips

history
Popular proverb from Yuan/Ming drama, notably 《元曲选》 and 水浒传-era popular literature. Full form: 人无千日好,花无百日红 a folk-level counterpart to Confucian sayings, warning against taking good times for granted.
usage
Virtually always quoted together with 花无百日红. Colloquial, very common in spoken Mandarin; unlike many classical lines, this one still lives in everyday speech.

Stroke Order

人 rén
无 wú
千 qiān
日 rì
好 hǎo