You can't please everyone
Meaning: It's impossible to satisfy every person all the time.
Origin: The fable of the miller, his son and the donkey makes the point: whether they ride or walk, someone criticizes them, until they end up carrying the donkey and losing it. Though often printed with Aesop's fables, it is first written down in the Middle Ages; La Fontaine retold it in 1668, and its moral is usually given as "Please all, and you will please none."
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
- French: On ne peut pas plaire à tout le monde (literally: You can't please everyone)
- Spanish: No se puede complacer a todos (literally: You can't please everyone)
- Japanese: 全員を満足させることはできない (Zen'in wo manzoku saseru koto wa dekinai) (literally: You cannot satisfy everyone)
- German: Allen Menschen recht getan, ist eine Kunst, die niemand kann (literally: To do right by all people is an art that no one can manage)
More proverbs about Human Nature
- A leopard can't change its spots — People can't fundamentally change their nature.
- When the cat's away, the mice will play — People behave freely when authority is absent.
- Lightning never strikes twice — Rare events are unlikely to happen to the same person twice.
- To each their own — Everyone has their own preferences and choices.
- You can't teach an old dog new tricks — It's difficult to change established habits.
- Hunger is the best sauce — Food tastes better when you're truly hungry.
From our tongue twisters
- Карл у Клары украл кораллы, Клара у Карла украла кларнет. (Karl u Klary ukral korally, Klara u Karla ukrala klarnet.) — A 'kl/kr/r' drama — crime, countercrimes, and consonant clusters all at once.
- Корабли лавировали, лавировали, да не вылавировали. (Korabli lavirovali, lavirovali, da ne vylavirovali.) — One verb, three inflections, pure 'lav/vir' torture — the word grows with every repetitio…
- W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie i Szczebrzeszyn z tego słynie. — The opening of a poem by Julian Tuwim, now Poland's most-quoted tongue twister — the cons…