Don't put all your eggs in one basket

Posted by ESC on May 20, 2003

In Reply to: Dont put all your eggs in one basket posted by Rosebud on May 20, 2003

: I understand what it means but where did it come from? Does any one know its origin?
: Thanks for your help!
: Rose

This doesn't have an origin but it does show that the phrase is very old.

PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET - "To rely too much on one resource or one line of effort; to risk everything on a single venture.The same thought was embodied in a proverb now forgotten: 'Venture not all in one bottom.' Giovanni Torriano, writing on popular phrases in 1666, used one expression to define the other: 'To put all ones Eggs in a Paniard, viz., to hazard all in one bottom." From From The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).

• Don't put all your eggs in one basket masakim 05/20/03
  • Bottom ESC 05/21/03