Let sleeping dogs lie

To avoid stirring up trouble or revisiting a settled issue, choosing peace over provocation even if it means leaving things unresolved. It suggests letting dormant problems rest.

Traced to Chaucer's 1374 'Troilus and Criseyde,' where he wrote 'it is nought good a slepyng hound to wake,' rooted in medieval hunting dogs' fierce tempers. By the 18th century, it evolved into 'let sleeping dogs lie' in English proverbs, with a 1824 novel using it for avoiding old scandals. The image taps into a universal caution about rousing trouble, blending rural wisdom with a growing cultural preference for stability over confrontation.