don't put all your eggs in one basket

English

Eggs in a basket. Let's hope there are other eggs in another basket...

Proverb

don't put all your eggs in one basket

1. Do not dedicate all your resources to one project.
2. Do not count on any one thing to safeguard what is valuable.

Usage notes

Its use in print has been traced to the novel "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes in the early 1600s.

Related terms

• put all one's eggs in one basket

Translations

do not dedicate all your resources to one project

• French: il ne faut pas mettre tous ses œufs dans le même panier (fr)
• Greek: μη βάζεις όλα τ' αβγά στο ίδιο καλάθι (el) (mi vázeis óla t' avgá sto ídio kaláthi)
• Polish: nie stawiaj wszystkiego na jedną kartę.
• Russian: не клади все яйца в одну корзину (ne kladi vse jajca v odnu korzinu)
• Spanish: no hay que poner todos los huevos en una sola canasta

References

• Gregory Y. Titelman, Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings, 1996, →ISBN, p. 70.