Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
"Don't disturb a settled situation, or you may provoke new trouble."
One of the oldest proverbs still in everyday English use. Geoffrey Chaucer included an early version of it in Troilus and Criseyde in the 1380s: "it is nought good a sleeping hound to wake." The logic is plain enough that versions of the same warning appear across several old European languages, but the English wording traces cleanly back to Chaucer and has barely changed shape in over six hundred years.
Sources: Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde (c.1380s); cited as the earliest English form in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Quick react
Discuss
New comments are held for a quick check before they show up here.
Loading comments…