there's many a slip twixt cup and lip

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• Received-Pronunciation: /ðɛəz ˌmɛni‿ə ˈslɪp twɪkst ˌkʌp‿n̩ ˈlɪp/
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• Received-Pronunciation: /ðɛːz-/
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• General-American: /ðɛəɹz ˌmɛni‿ə ˈslɪp twɪkst ˌkʌp‿n̩ ˈlɪp/
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• General-American: /ðɛɹz-/
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• General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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• rhymes with -ɪp
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The Dutch humanist Erasmus (c. 1466 – 1536), in his collection of proverbs called Adagia, noted that the Carthaginian grammarian Sulpicius Apollinaris (fl. 2nd century C.E.) recorded two proverbs, one in Greek and the other in Latin, with the same meaning: πολλὰ μεταξὺ πέλει κύλικος καὶ χείλεος ἄκρου (pollà metaxù pélei kúlikos kaì kheíleos ákrou, literally “much takes place between the (wine) cup and the upper lip”) and multa cadunt inter calice[m], supremaq[ue] labra (literally “many things fall between the chalice and the upper lips”). The earliest English version of the expression recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is Richard Taverner’s 1539 translation of Erasmus’s work: see the quotation. The proverb refers to the possibility of a drink being spilled from a cup while it is being raised to the lips and before it can be drunk. The word slip (absent from the original Greco-Roman version) was chosen for its rhyme with lip.

18 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Bulgarian: не се заричай (ne se zaričaj) — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• Catalan: de prometre a complir hi ha molt a dir — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• Catalan: de prometre a complir hi ha molt tros per penedir — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• Chinese Mandarin: 百密一疏 (bǎimìyīshū) — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• Chinese Mandarin: 計劃趕不上變化 /计划赶不上变化 (jìhuà gǎnbùshàng biànhuà) — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• Chinese Mandarin: 天有不測風雲 /天有不测风云 (tiān yǒu bùcè fēngyún) — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• Finnish: moni asia voi mennä pieleen — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• French: il y a loin de la coupe aux lèvres — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• German: freu dich nicht zu früh — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• German: man soll den Tag nicht vor dem Abend loben — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• Hindi: दिल्ली अभी दूर है (dillī abhī dūr hai) — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• Italian: tra il dire e il fare c'è di mezzo il mare — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• Japanese: 油断大敵 (yudantaiteki) — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• Latin: multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• Scottish Gaelic: eadar long is laimhrig — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• Scottish Gaelic: na cuir do làmh eadar a' chlach is an sgrath — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• Spanish: de la mano a la boca desaparece la sopa — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong
• Spanish: del dicho al hecho hay mucho trecho — in any situation, however well planned, something can always go wrong