let a thousand flowers bloom

English dictionary entry

Meanings

proverb
  1. One should not interfere with promising developments in their early stages.

Word forms

let a thousand flowers bloom

Etymology

A calque of Chinese 百花齊放,百家爭鳴 /百花齐放,百家争鸣 (bǎihuā-qífàng, bǎijiā-zhēngmíng) ("let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend"), from various speeches made by Mao Zedong during the 1950s.

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