build on sand

Use an unstable foundation, as in If you buy nothing but high-risk stocks, your portfolio will be built on sand. This metaphor appears in the New Testament, where Jesus likens those who do not heed his sayings to a foolish man who builds his house on sand, which then is washed away by rain, flood, and wind (Matthew 7:24–27). [c. 1600]

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Example Sentences

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Otherwise, we are trying to build on sand or air or something equally insubstantial.

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To use them for a foundation is to build on sand.

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If you falter, or fail to fulfil this Golden Rule, though you should build to the heavens, you would build on sand.

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To build on selfishness is to build on sand.

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Those, therefore, who build arguments as to the needlessness of religion on the foundation that persons without any belief in God do exhibit all the moral virtues, build on sand.

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build on buildout

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