pick one's battles

English

Alternative forms

• choose one's battles

Verb

pick one's battles (third-person singular simple present picks one's battles, present participle picking one's battles, simple past and past participle picked one's battles)

1. (idiomatic) To involve oneself in disputes only if one is likely to win.
2. (idiomatic) To take a stand for a cause only if it is truly important enough to be worth the costs.
   • 2010 May 25, Lynn Hirschberg, quoting M.I.A., “M.I.A.’s Agitprop Pop”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     “ […] Jimmy Iovine, who runs Interscope, my record company, said, ‘Pick your battles carefully — don’t put your life at risk,’ but at the end of the day, I don’t see how you can shut up and just enjoy success when other people who don’t have the fame or the luxury to rent security guards are suffering. […] ”

Translations

to only involve oneself in disputes that one is likely to win

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 選邊站／选边站

• Finnish: valita taistelunsa
• Polish: uczestniczyć tylko w pewnych bitwach impf

to only take a stand for a cause that is truly important to one

• Finnish: valita taistelunsa
• Polish: walczyć tylko w ważnych dla siebie sprawach impf

See also

• never fight a land war in Asia
• hill to die on