Meanings
alternative never start a land war in Asia
- Don't bite off more than you can chew; don't start a fight that is too big to win.
"Well listen here, Walmart," wrote blogger Caroline Gallay, "you should heed the advice of Vizzini in The Princess Bride: Never fight a land war in Asia."
2016, Philip Kotler, François Maon, A Stakeholder Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility: Pressures, Conflicts, and Reconciliation, Routledge, →ISBN, page 502 more examples
Although Britain is one of the world's most lucrative markets, with retail sales of £286bn last year, expensive shop rents and world-class local competition have kept international groups at bay. Indeed, some analysts put the UK in the "never fight a land war in Asia" category due to the challenges posed by the market.
2010 October 1, Zoe Wood, “Retail therapy: foreign chains glimpse window of opportunity in UK market”, in The GuardianApple’s mistake in instigating a patent war with Samsung is illustrative of a larger pattern involving large stockpiles of patents. “Never fight a land war in Asia” comes to mind.
2014 July 4, Evan Jensen, “The Patent Wars”, in LexologySynonyms: pick one's battles, choose one's battles
Synonyms & antonyms
phraseDon't bite off more than you can chew; don't start a fight that is too big to win.
Origin
Attributed to various military leaders, including Bernard Montgomery, Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur, the quotation has existed in various forms since the Second World War. It was popularized when used by the character Vizzini in the 1987 movie The Princess Bride (after appearing in the 1973 novel The Princess Bride). Asia is far more heavily populated than Europe or North America, and while Western armies had technological advantages post-WWII, these could be overcome (as they were in Korea by the Chinese PLA and Vietnam by the PAVN) by sheer numbers.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
never fight a land war in Asia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/never%20fight%20a%20land%20war%20in%20Asia
“never fight a land war in Asia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/never%20fight%20a%20land%20war%20in%20Asia. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “never fight a land war in Asia,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/never%20fight%20a%20land%20war%20in%20Asia.
Source: never fight a land war in Asia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.