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好事多磨

Mandarin · pinyin hǎo shì duō mó

the road to happiness is strewn with setbacks (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

好: hǎo · good, excellent, fine; well
事: shì · affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident
多: duō · much, many; more than, over
磨: mó · grind; polish; rub; wear out; a millstone

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–4–1–2 · hao3 shi4 duo1 mo2

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) the road to happiness is paved with setbacks; good things never come easy

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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