English · Proverb Candidate

discretion is the better part of valour

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Also seen as: discretion is the better part of valor

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Caution is often more advantageous than bravery

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Thận trọng thường mang lại lợi thế hơn can đảm

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: choosing carefulness over heroic action

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

Even though my father was a regular and popular customer, discretion was often the best part of valour (so it is said).

Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, Davidson began: ‘ Aidan, you probably like a few pints?’

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “discretion is the better part of valour” mean?

Caution is often more advantageous than bravery Literally: choosing carefulness over heroic action

Is “discretion is the better part of valour” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.