easy come, easy go

What is readily achieved or gained is also readily lost. This principle was noted hundreds of years ago by the Chinese sage Chuang-tsze (“Quickly come and quickly go,” c. 400 B.C.) and appears sev- eral times in Chaucer’s writings—for example, “As lightly as it comth, so wol we spende” (The Pardoner’s Tale). “Light come, light go” is also in John Heywood’s 1546 proverb collection. Easy was substituted for lightly and quickly in the nineteenth century.