A leopard can’t change its spots means that a person cannot change their inner character or nature, especially if it is bad.
What is the proverb in Chinese？
Examples Of Use
“He keeps saying he is sorry and will never do it again but he keeps seeing other women. I guess a leopard can’t change its spots.”
“I don’t believe he has really gone legit. A leopard doesn’t change its spots.”
“There is no point trying to get him to stop. He’s going to keep drinking no matter what. You can’t change a leopard’s spots.”
Origin
This idiom and its variants arose from an ancient Greek proverb which appears in the Bible in Jeremiah 13:23:
“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots.”
In English, it was first used in print in 1546.
