"the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" meaning in English

See the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Etymology: From a Scots poem by Robert Burns, To a Mouse. Head templates: {{head|en|proverb}} the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry
  1. No matter how well a project is planned, accidents or misfortune can still happen with it. Synonyms: man plans and God laughs, the best laid plans of mice and men go oft astray Related terms: agley § Usage notes
    Sense id: en-the_best_laid_plans_of_mice_and_men_often_go_awry-en-proverb-v1BXO3Uc Categories (other): English proverbs

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry meaning in English (1.5kB)

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  "etymology_text": "From a Scots poem by Robert Burns, To a Mouse.",
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          "ref": "1785, Robert Burns, To a Mouse",
          "text": "But mouse, you are not alone,\nIn proving foresight may be vain;\nThe best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew\nAnd leave us nothing but grief and pain,\nFor promised joy!",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "ref": "1971, Neal Cassady, “Letter to Jack Kerouac, March 7, 1947”, in The First Third, City Lights, page 125",
          "text": "Knowing her supremely perfect being was completely mine […] I could conceive of no obstacle to my satisfaction, well, “the best laid plans of mice & men go astray” and my nemesis was her sister, the bitch.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
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        "No matter how well a project is planned, accidents or misfortune can still happen with it."
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      "id": "en-the_best_laid_plans_of_mice_and_men_often_go_awry-en-proverb-v1BXO3Uc",
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          "word": "man plans and God laughs"
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        {
          "word": "the best laid plans of mice and men go oft astray"
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  "word": "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry"
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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