半途而废

Pronunciation: bàn tú ér fèi Literal meaning: Abandon halfway through journey

Origin & Usage

In the Doctrine of the Mean, Confucius says that the noble person walks the way and gives up (废) half (半) way along the road (途) — and that he himself could not stop. The illustration usually told with it is Yue Yangzi's wife, who cut her half-woven cloth from the loom when he came home early from his studies, and asked what the ruined web was worth. He went back and stayed seven years. The phrase condemns not failure but abandonment, and specifically the waste of what was already invested.

Examples

English: "After months of training, she quit just weeks before the competition"

Chinese: 经过数月的训练，她在比赛前几周就放弃了