ProverbChallenge
English origin
English originThe devil is not always at one door.
Meaning: Misfortune strikes unpredictably from different directions, so vigilance must extend everywhere, not fixate on single threats.
Origin: Recorded in A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, an undated collection published in London by Whittaker & Co. around 1880 and credited to Thomas Preston. Its earlier history hasn't been traced.
Equivalents in French
French: Le diable n’est pas toujours à la porte d’un pauvre homme (literally: The devil is not always at a poor man’s door)
Explore another collection: Idioms
Colorful expressions from dozens of languages, with their word-for-word translations.
- Recoller les morceaux to repair a broken relationship or reconcile after a quarrel.
- Brûler ses dernières cartouches to exhaust one's final resources or use one's last arguments in desperation.
- Ne s’être pas regardé to judge others harshly while being blind to one's own equal or greater faults.
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