力不从心 — Chinese idiom
力不从心
lì bù cóng xīn
Traditional: 力不從心
Meaning
- to lack the ability to do what one would wish
Character by character
- 力lìstrength, power; capability, influence
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 从cóngfrom, by, since, whence, through
- 心xīnheart; mind; soul
Idioms sharing a character
- 不自量力 bù zì liàng lì
- 不遗余力 bù yí yú lì
- 全力以赴 quán lì yǐ fù
- 力不胜任 lì bù shèng rèn
- 力所能及 lì suǒ néng jí
- 力挽狂澜 lì wǎn kuáng lán
- 力排众议 lì pái zhòng yì
- 力争上游 lì zhēng shàng yóu
- 力尽神危 lì jìn shén wēi
- 勉力而为 miǎn lì ér wéi
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.