由奢入俭难

由奢入儉難

yóushērùjiǎnnán

phrase

Meanings

1 to go from extravagance back to frugality is hard — once accustomed to luxury, it is hard to cut back
2 literally: from extravagance entering frugality, difficult

Characters

Examples

由俭入奢易，由奢入俭难，花钱习惯要早立规矩。

Yóu jiǎn rù shē yì, yóu shē rù jiǎn nán, huā qián xíguàn yào zǎo lì guījǔ.

Going from thrift to luxury is easy; from luxury back to thrift is hard — set spending rules early.

降薪之后生活很痛苦，真是由奢入俭难。

Jiàng xīn zhīhòu shēnghuó hěn tòngkǔ, zhēn shì yóu shē rù jiǎn nán.

After the pay cut, life became hard — truly, shifting from luxury to thrift is painful.

Tips

history

From Sima Guang's (司马光) Northern Song 《训俭示康》 (Instructions on Frugality for [my son] Kang). Couplet: 由俭入奢易，由奢入俭难 — 'To go from frugality into extravagance is easy; to go from extravagance back into frugality is difficult.' Sima Guang — compiler of 《资治通鉴》 — was famously thrifty despite being chief minister, and wrote this piece to train his son.

usage

Paired couplet — always quoted with its mate 由俭入奢易. Warning-register: financial advisers, parents, and household economists all reach for this line. 俭 is jiǎn (thrift), 奢 is shē (extravagance) — easy to mix up character order.

Stroke Order

由 yóu

奢 shē

入 rù

俭 jiǎn

难 nán