If you must dance with the Devil, you might as well know his favorite song (H. Anthony Ribadeneira)
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Be prepared to accommodate an undesirable situation
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Phải đối mặt với tình huống khó chịu thì nên chuẩn bị
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: dancing with the devil as a metaphor for compromise
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
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 “If you must dance with the Devil, you might as well know his favorite song (H. Anthony Ribadeneira)” mean?
Be prepared to accommodate an undesirable situation Literally: dancing with the devil as a metaphor for compromise
Is “If you must dance with the Devil, you might as well know his favorite song (H. Anthony Ribadeneira)” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.