Don't put all your eggs in one basket
Meaning: Don't risk everything on one venture.
Origin: A warning against staking everything on a single venture — drop the basket and every egg breaks. The idea was probably Spanish or Italian, appears in English translations of Don Quixote, and was established in English in the 17th century. Mark Twain turned it on its head in Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894): "Put all your eggs in the one basket and — WATCH THAT BASKET."
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
- French: Ne mettez pas tous vos œufs dans le même panier (literally: Don't put all your eggs in the same basket)
- Spanish: No pongas todos los huevos en la misma canasta (literally: Don't put all eggs in the same basket)
- Japanese: 一つのカゴに全ての卵を入れるな (Hitotsu no kago ni subete no tamago wo ireru na) (literally: Don't put all eggs in one basket)
- German: Man soll nicht alle Eier in einen Korb legen (literally: One should not put all the eggs in one basket)
More proverbs about Morality
- Two wrongs don't make a right — Responding to wrongdoing with more wrongdoing is never justified.
- Honesty is the best policy — Being truthful is always the right approach.
- You reap what you sow — Your actions determine your outcomes.
- An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind — Revenge only creates more suffering.
- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you — Treat people the way you want to be treated.
- Don't bite the hand that feeds you — Don't harm those who help you.
From our idioms
- Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof — I don't understand anything at all.
- Da steppt der Bär — It's going to be a great party.
- Tomaten auf den Augen haben — To be oblivious to what's right in front of you.