"Rome wasn't built in a day" is an adage attesting to the need for time to create great things. It is the usual English translation of a medieval French phrase,, from the collection, published around 1190.[1] The modern French form is «French: [[wikt:Rome ne s'est pas faite en un jour#French|Rome ne s'est pas faite en un jour]]». Here is how it may be used in a conversation: "You cannot expect me to finish a project of this scale in 24 hours. Rome wasn't built in a day".
The expression, (as "Rome was not built in one day") is given in English in John Heywood's A Dialogue Conteinyng the Nomber in Effect of all the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue (c. 1538),[2] while Queen Elizabeth I referred to the idea in Latin in an address at Cambridge in 1563.[3] The present perfect and oratio recta version of the Latin saying—the version one would use for a stand-alone quotation—would be Roma uno die non est condita.
The phrase was used in the title of a song by Sam Cooke[4] also covered by British singer Anne Shelton.[5]