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My understanding of French is extremely limited so I am not sure who is correct in this situation. A Twitter user contends that the French writer Maurice Druon once said "Tradition is nothing but a progress which has succeeded".

As best I can find, Druon's original quote in French is "Une tradition, ce n'est jamais qu'un progrès qui a réussi".

So far my basic efforts indicate the Druon quote actually means the opposite of what the person on Twitter contends, yet at the same time I found one resource indicating that sometimes "ce n'est jamais" means "is always".

So in the context of this specific quote, is tradition always, or never, a progress which has succeeded? If it does actually mean what the Twitter user contends, what contextual clues would guide me in this instance?

Grammar-wise (strictly speaking):

In the construction "ce n'est jamais qu'un(e) X", the main focus is on the restrictive "ne ... que ..."; the structure is not about the negation "ne ... jamais ...". This fact alone may well lead you to the right interpretation; This "jamais" is not seen as a negation, but rather as "ever", as in:

Si jamais la couleur du chapeau que vous choisissez ne vous convient finalement pas, ...

Voilà bien le meilleur café que j'aie jamais bu.

Translation-wise (practically speaking):

That being said, as far as translation into English is concerned, you could easily be forgiven for applying the meaning "never" to the "jamais" in "ce n'est jamais qu'un(e) X":

It's never anything but a ...

It's only ever a ...

This construction can be naturally translated in two different ways, using either "ever" or "never", but they both boil down to the same thing.

This use of "jamais" appears to be neither "always" nor "never" but to be equivalent to "seulement" (only). I infer that from a translation in a Robert-Collins dictionary: "Ce n'est jamais qu'un enfant" (He is only a child). So, "nothing but" (rien que) is a good translation. The form is generally "SUBJECT_ne_être_que_COMPLÉMENT".

• La pomme n'est jamais qu'un fruit commun.


• Ce n'est jamais que la pluie qui crée des inondations.


• Un arbre n'est jamais qu'une herbe qui s'est endurcie et qui a grandi.

"Une tradition, ce n'est jamais qu'un progrès qui a réussi" is translated in "A tradition is nothing more than a progress which has succeeded".