every dog has its day

English

Alternative forms

• every dog has his day
• every dog must have his day
• every dog must have its day

Proverb

every dog has its day

1. Everyone, at some point, experiences some degree of success, impact, or influence in life.
   • 1898, [George] Bernard Shaw, “Cæsar and Cleopatra”, in Three Plays for Puritans: The Devil’s Disciple, Cæsar and Cleopatra, & Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, London: Grant Richards, […], published 1901, →OCLC, Act III, page 153:

     cæsar [...] Yes, Rufio: I am an old man—worn out now—true, quite true. [...] Well, every dog has his day; and I have had mine: I cannot complain.

   • 1987 Nov. 5, Thomas George, "Football: First Down, Many Goals to Go," New York Times (retrieved 13 July 2015):

     "[T]o lose, it hurt. But I learned from that. I learned that every dog has its day. I learned patience."

   • 2012 Aug. 11, "Europa League: Hearts delight at Liverpool tie," Independent (UK) (retrieved 13 July 2015):

     The Hearts manager John McGlynn was thrilled to be drawn against Liverpool in the Europa League play-offs. McGlynn said: ". . . . I would imagine the bookmakers would favour Liverpool but every dog has its day."

Translations

proverb

• Arabic: كُلّ كَلْب بِيجِي يُومُه (kull kalb bījī yūmuh) - Used in negative context
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 風水輪流轉／风水轮流转 (zh) (fēngshuǐ lúnliú zhuàn), 风水轮流转 (zh) (fēngshuǐ lúnliú zhuàn)

• Estonian: igal oinal oma mihklipäev
• Finnish: paistaa se päivä risukasaankin (literally “the day will shine to a pile of brushwood, too”)
• German: ein blindes Huhn findet auch einmal Korn (even a blind hen sometimes finds a grain of corn)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hebrew: כל כלב בא יומו (he) - Derived from Arabic, and used in negative context as well
• Hindi: सभी का एक दिन आता है (sabhī kā ek din ātā hai)
• Hungarian: vak tyúk is talál szemet (hu), minden zsák megtalálja a maga foltját (hu)
• Russian: бу́дет и на на́шей у́лице пра́здник (búdet i na nášej úlice prázdnik) (and in our street there will be holiday too)
• Spanish: a todo cerdo le llega su san Martín (every pig will get his St. Martin)

References

• Gregory Y. Titelman, Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings, 1996, →ISBN, p. 87.