好事不出门，恶事传千里 in English hao3 shi4 bu4 chu1 men2 , e4 shi4 chuan2 qian1 li3 Meaning

Meanings

  • literally (word for word) good deeds do not go beyond the door, evil deeds spread a thousand miles
  • a good deed goes unnoticed, but scandal spreads fast (idiomatic expression)

Simplified Characters

好 事 不 出 门 ， 恶 事 传 千 里

Traditional Characters

好 事 不 出 門 ， 惡 事 傳 千 里

Pinyin

hao3 shi4 bu4 chu1 men2 , e4 shi4 chuan2 qian1 li3

Literal

Literal explanation, with pronunciation and meaning of each character.

好hao3good 事shi4matter 不bu4(negative prefix) 出chu1to go out 门men2surname Men ， 恶e4see 惡心|恶心[e3 xin1] 事shi4matter 传chuan2to pass on 千qian1thousand 里li3variant of 裡|里[li3]