Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. There is an old story about farmer’s wife who wanted to raise money selling eggs.
She anticipated that she was going to make a good income from this labor. One day, she loaded all her eggs in a single basket and went to the market.
On the way to the market, she was not cautious and tripped over a rock. Not only were the eggs dashed, but her hopes were too.
This proverb not only cautions us against getting our hopes too high, but to remain objective, level-headed, and to diversify.
Many years ago, I had one-third of my stock portfolio invested in Cisco. That made me uncomfortable, so I sold it at a handsome profit and invested in others stocks.
When the stock market crashed in 2001, I was very happy with my decision to not put all my “eggs” in Cisco.
Can you think of other examples in life where you should not put all your “eggs in one basket”?
Does Chinese have a similar proverb? I’d love to hear it! 请留言!! Please leave a comment! Questions are also welcome!
VOCABULARY
- anticipate – to expect in the future
- cautious – careful
- dash – to break
- diversify – to have
- handsome – in this usage, handsome means large or sizable
- objective – unemotional when analyzing an idea, to be unbiased, “a good scientist is objective”
| English | Simplified Chinese | Traditional Chinese | PinYin |
|---|---|---|---|
| anticipate | 期盼 | 期盼 | qīpàn to expect that |
| cautious | 仔细 | 仔細 | zǐxì |
| dash | |||
| diversify | 多样化 | 多樣化 | duōyàng huà |
| handsome | 曼 | 曼 | màn |
| objective | 客观 | 客觀 | kèguān |
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Here are some similar Chinese idioms：
孤注一掷【gū zhù yī zhì】
破釜沉舟【pò fǔ chén zhōu】
Thank you, Sophia! I’ll do some research on these. I bet there’s an interesting story behind these. The second is literally “broken kettle submerged boat” according to my on-line translator.
Hi Dave,
I think 狡兔三窟 is a similar Chinese idiom. Thant means a smart bunny shoud have 3 holes for hidden from enemies.
For non native speakers 狡兔三窟 is pronounced “jiǎ tù sān kū”. It sounds as if it rhymes. Literally “crafty rabbit three caves”.
Awesome! Thank you for this proverb, Sue!