欲速则不达
yù sù zé bù dáSpeed desired, arrival missed — Confucius on why rushing produces the opposite of what you intend.
Source · 出处 chūchù
The phrase comes from 论语 (Lúnyǔ, the Analects), Book 13, Chapter 17. Zilu, one of Confucius's disciples, has been appointed governor of a district. He asks Confucius for advice on governance. Confucius responds: "Do not seek speed. Do not be seduced by small gains. Seek speed and you will not arrive (欲速则不达). Be seduced by small gains and great affairs will not be accomplished (见小利则大事不成)."
The context is specifically about governance — the warning is against the administrator who tries to show results quickly (to demonstrate competence, to accumulate credit) at the cost of actually achieving substantive goals. It is a critique of performance over substance, of the appearance of urgency substituting for careful, patient work.
The phrase has expanded far beyond its original governmental context to become one of the most general and universally applicable sayings in the Chinese repertoire — equivalent in function to the English "haste makes waste," but with the Confucian authority of the Analects behind it.
Meaning · 含义 hányì
The idiom identifies a specific cognitive error: the belief that increasing speed of execution will increase the probability of achieving the goal. The Confucian insight is that many goals have internal requirements — learning, relationship-building, institution-building, agricultural cultivation — that cannot be accelerated without degrading the outcome. If you try to grow rice faster by pulling on the shoots, the shoots die.
The full phrase contains a corollary that is less often quoted: 见小利则大事不成 (jiàn xiǎolì zé dàshì bù chéng, "be seduced by small gains and great affairs will not be accomplished"). This second half makes the political-strategic point explicit: if you optimize for immediate, visible wins, you sacrifice long-term, consequential ones.
Together the two halves describe a coherent picture of bad governance or bad strategy: rushing and short-termism, each the mirror of the other. The patient, unhurried administrator who keeps the long goal in view is the implied ideal.
Usage · 用法 yòngfǎ
做事不能着急，欲速则不达。(Zuòshì bù néng zháojí, yù sù zé bù dá.) — Don't be in such a rush with things — haste doesn't bring success. Said to someone who is cutting corners, skipping steps, or visibly anxious about pace at the expense of quality.
Frequently invoked to justify patient investment strategies, long product development cycles, careful hiring, or gradual market entry over aggressive expansion. Chinese business culture's citation of this phrase sits alongside a culture that also frequently moves very fast — the tension is real and the idiom is used to justify both caution and the criticism of excessive caution.
Teachers invoke 欲速则不达 to discourage students from trying to sprint through vocabulary lists and grammar rules without consolidating what they've learned. The idiom is also itself a good memory object — understanding it requires the very patient, thorough approach it recommends.
Character Analysis · 字解 zìjiě
To desire, to want. Classical usage — in modern Mandarin, 想要 (xiǎng yào) is more common for "to want." 欲 appears in classical idioms and literary contexts: 欲望 (yùwàng, desire/craving), 食欲 (shíyù, appetite).
Speed, fast. Also "quickly." 速度 (sùdù, speed), 快速 (kuàisù, rapid), 速成 (sùchéng, crash course — "fast-completion"). The irony: 速成 is exactly what 欲速则不达 warns against.
Classical conditional particle — "if X, then Y." Still used in formal written Chinese. In modern speech, 就 (jiù) covers much of the same ground, but 则 remains in formal writing, legal texts, and idioms.
达 means to arrive at, to achieve, to reach. 不达 is failure to arrive. The same character appears in 达到目的 (dádào mùdì, to achieve the goal), 表达 (biǎodá, to express), 达人 (dárén, expert, accomplished person — a social media term for influencer).