There but for the grace of God go I
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
One could have easily been in someone else's unfortunate situation
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Một người có thể dễ dàng rơi vào tình huống bất hạnh của người khác
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: walking in someone's footsteps due to divine favor
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “There but for the grace of God go I” mean?
One could have easily been in someone else's unfortunate situation Literally: walking in someone's footsteps due to divine favor
Is “There but for the grace of God go I” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.