Anything for a quiet life.
Meaning: Compromising principles for peace often costs more than the temporary harmony it buys.
Origin: The title of a Jacobean city comedy by Thomas Middleton, probably written with John Webster, around 1621. It describes giving in to demands simply to avoid trouble.
Equivalents in Italian
- Italian: Alla pace si può sacrificar tutto (literally: Anything for a quiet life)
More proverbs about Wisdom
- Small rain lays great dust. — Gentle persistence dissolves entrenched problems that seem immovable through force alone.
- Self do, self have. — Personal effort yields personal reward; what you accomplish yourself remains genuinely yo…
- Short reckonings are soon cleared. — Quick settlements of debts prevent disputes and preserve relationships before resentment…
- White silver draws black lines. — Silver's brilliance requires contrast; purity and darkness define each other's value.
- Don't wake a sleeping dog. — Disturbing a calm situation risks provoking unnecessary anger or conflict.
- Small things affect light minds. — Trivial matters preoccupy the intellectually shallow while serious thinkers remain focuse…
From our tongue twisters
- Chi è Ciccio Capece? Ciccio Capece è un capocaccia che caccia con la cacciaballa. — A 'c/ci/ccia' onslaught — Italian's hard and soft c in the same sentence, non-stop.
- O rato roeu a roupa do rei de Roma; a rainha com raiva roeu o resto. — An unstoppable 'r' trill drill — every key word begins or ends with the Portuguese r.
- Um tigre, dois tigres, três tigres tristes triscam trigo num trigal. — A 'tr' cluster drill that adds a sad adjective to make the alliteration worse.