善始善终 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• where there's a start, there's a finish ; to finish once one starts sth
• to carry things through
• I started, so I'll finish.

Character by character

• 善shàngood, virtuous, charitable, kind
• 始shǐto begin, to start; beginning
• 善shàngood, virtuous, charitable, kind
• 终zhōngend; finally, in the end

Idioms sharing a character

• 乏善可陈 fá shàn kě chén
• 兼善天下 jiān shàn tiān xià
• 劝善惩恶 quàn shàn chéng è
• 善有善报 shàn yǒu shàn bào
• 善罢甘休 shàn bà gān xiū
• 善自为谋 shàn zì wéi móu
• 善自珍摄 shàn zì zhēn shè
• 善解人意 shàn jiě rén yì
• 善财难舍 shàn cái nán shě
• 多愁善感 duō chóu shàn gǎn

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.