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The best laid schemes of mice and men
Meaning
The most carefully prepared plans may go wrong.
Origin
From
Robert Burns' poem To a Mouse, 1786. It tells of how he, while ploughing a field,
upturned a mouse's nest. The resulting poem is an apology to the mouse:
...
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promised joy.
...
The poem is of course the source for the title of John Steinbeck's 1936 novel - Of Mice and Men.