pick one's battles

present singular third person picks one's battles · participle present picking one's battles · participle past picked one's battles · past picked one's battles

1. idiomaticTo involve oneself in disputes only if one is likely to win.

   Synonyms: choose one's battles

2. idiomaticTo take a stand for a cause only if it is truly important enough to be worth the costs.

   1 more example

   “[…]Jimmy Iovine, who runs Interscope, my record company, said, ‘Pick your battles carefully — don’t put your life at risk,’ but at the end of the day, I don’t see how you can shut up and just enjoy success when other people who don’t have the fame or the luxury to rent security guards are suffering.[…]”

   2010 May 25, Lynn Hirschberg, quoting M.I.A., “M.I.A.’s Agitprop Pop”, in The New York Times, →ISSN