ll ne faut pas tout craindre, mais il faut tout préparer

English translation: Do not fear everything, but be prepared for it.

22:04 May 14, 2020

French to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Philosophy / Richelieu quote

French term or phrase: ll ne faut pas tout craindre, mais il faut tout préparer

This quote is being used a lot regarding Covid-19, but I didn't think it quite belonged in the dedicated section. I know what it means, but I feel like there should be an authoritative English translation out there, but I can't find it. Does anyone know?

Joan Berglund KudoZ activity Questions: 250 (8 open) (6 without valid answers) (48 closed without grading) Answers: 65 United States
Local time: 09:19

English translation:Do not fear everything, but be prepared for it.

Explanation:
I think this is nice and simple, and stays close to the French. And you don't necessarily have to repeat "everything" as the source text does. Whether it's really by Richelieu is neither here nor there.

Selected response from:

philgoddard
United States

Grading comment

This is pretty close to what I went with.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

3 +8

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst

Wolf Draeger

Not everything should be feared, everything must, however, be prepared.

ABDESSAMAD BINAOUI

4 +1

Do not fear everything, but be prepared for it.

philgoddard

One need not fear all things, but one need to prepare for all things.

Francis Nataf

preparedness is the antidote to fear

Francois Boye

3 +1

Don't be scared, be prepared!

Hugues Roumier

not everything needs to be feared, but everything should prepared for

Michele Fauble

One/People should not be completely overpowered by fear, but should be prepared for anything

Barbara Cochran, MFA

Discussion entries: 7

Wolf Draeger

South Africa

Fear is the mother of foresight

12:01 May 15, 2020

Another option, attributed to Thomas Hardy and Henry Taylor. A versatile quote—perhaps too versatile for your needs :-)

Carol Gullidge

United Kingdom

@Joan

07:04 May 15, 2020

Like so many Askers, you say you “know what it means” but haven’t given us your take. :(

Anne Schulz

Germany

04:10 May 15, 2020

I agree with Phil, this has a strong smell of copying from one another – all instances of this "quote" I can find on the web are from portals or blogs written within a few days at the beginning of May.
<br /><br />If you are allowed to translate freely, you could use a documented quote from Chinese general Sun Tzu instead: "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." <br />(He actually goes on to say: "If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." – While this is probably not what the quoters had in mind, 'know yourself as well as the enemy' seems an appropriate piece of advice to me for people involved in the decision-making during the current panpidemic ;-)

Joan Berglund

United States

ASKER

@Phil

23:34 May 14, 2020

Given what a hard time I'm having finding it, I wonder if you are right about it being made up. I'm just not entirely happy with anything I've come up with so far.

philgoddard

United States

Doesn't matter where it comes from.

23:31 May 14, 2020

I don't think there's any need to find someone else's translation to copy, assuming it even exists. And in my experience, online quotes are often made up, and frequently attributed to Einstein.

Joan Berglund

United States

ASKER

Does anyone know what work the quote is from?

23:22 May 14, 2020

EDIT Yes, as I stated in my entry, the quote is attributed to Richelieu. I am trying to find out what work. When I google the French, I only get recent tweets/discussions/news stories using the quote in the context of COVID response, if info about the original source of the Richelieu quote was ever online I can't seem to dig it up.

Cyril Tollari

France

22:07 May 14, 2020

Be prepared not scared

Answers

3 mins confidence:

l ne faut pas tout craindre, mais il faut tout préparer Not everything should be feared, everything must, however, be prepared.

Explanation:
Here is a try for you.

ABDESSAMAD BINAOUI
Morocco
Local time: 14:19
Native speaker of:

English,

Arabic,

French

11 mins confidence:

l ne faut pas tout craindre, mais il faut tout préparer One/People should not be completely overpowered by fear, but should be prepared for anything

Explanation:
...anything that might happen.

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Note added at 23 mins (2020-05-14 22:27:41 GMT)
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Or "completely overwhelmed".

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Note added at 25 mins (2020-05-14 22:29:36 GMT)
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https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/overpower

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Note added at 27 mins (2020-05-14 22:31:58 GMT)
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https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/overcome-fear-a...

Barbara Cochran, MFA
United States
Local time: 09:19
Native speaker of:

English

45 mins confidence:

l ne faut pas tout craindre, mais il faut tout préparer preparedness is the antidote to fear

Explanation:
my take

Francois Boye
United States
Local time: 09:19
Native speaker of:

French

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

l ne faut pas tout craindre, mais il faut tout préparer Don't be scared, be prepared!

Explanation:
Or : don't be scared, (rather) be prepared!

From "sage journal"

Rather than concerning ourselves with “governing trauma” we should instead be concerned with how trauma has come to govern us. Trauma talk now comes naturally, and the article explores what all this trauma talk might be doing, ideologically and politically, especially in the context of the relationship between security and anxiety. The management of trauma and anxiety has become a way of mediating the demands of an endless security war: a war of security, a war for security, a war through security. The article therefore seeks to understand the concept of trauma and the proliferation of discourses of anxiety as ideological mechanisms deployed for the security crisis of endless war; deployed, that is, as a training in resilience.

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Note added at 1 hr (2020-05-14 23:32:35 GMT)
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Seems to be widespread

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32181864/

https://www.preventionweb.net/publications/view/8820

https://www.wfmz.com/news/sunrise/don-t-be-scared-be-prepare...

Example sentence(s):

Don’t Be Scared, Be Prepared”: Trauma-Anxiety-Resilience
Don't Be Nervous, Don't Be Flustered, Don't Be Scared. Be Prepared

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0304375412449789
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k6Sg4ChdA1s

Hugues Roumier
France
Local time: 15:19
Native speaker of:

French

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

l ne faut pas tout craindre, mais il faut tout préparer

Do not fear everything, but be prepared for it.

philgoddard
United States
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 16

Grading comment

This is pretty close to what I went with.

2 hrs confidence:

l ne faut pas tout craindre, mais il faut tout préparer not everything needs to be feared, but everything should prepared for

Explanation:
Just a suggestion.

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Note added at 2 hrs (2020-05-15 00:23:14 GMT)
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Or better, “Not everything needs to be feared, but be prepared for everything”.

Michele Fauble
United States
Local time: 06:19
Native speaker of:

English

4 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +8

l ne faut pas tout craindre, mais il faut tout préparer Hope for the best, prepare for the worst

Explanation:
This idiom won't be suitable to all or perhaps even most contexts, and of course it has nothing to do with Richelieu, but at least it's well established in English, and it isn't entirely out of place in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The attribution of the FR to Richelieu looks rather shaky to me, it sounds like the kind of thing any successful statesman or military leader might say. Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure Julius Caesar or Churchill said something awfully like it...

As an aside, the "quote" may be spreading (!) throughout Le French Web because it seems to have featured in a memo on public health crisis preparedness addressed to Candidate Macron back in 2016.

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Note added at 4 hrs (2020-05-15 02:30:26 GMT)
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You'd be forgiven for thinking the current policy of world leaders is to hope for the worst and scorn the best, but that's another story...

Wolf Draeger
South Africa
Local time: 15:19
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 8

8 hrs confidence:

l ne faut pas tout craindre, mais il faut tout préparer One need not fear all things, but one need to prepare for all things.

Explanation:
I don't believe there is an authoritative translation, but I think what I wrote does it justice.

Francis Nataf
Israel
Local time: 16:19
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English

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English translation: Do not fear everything, but be prepared for it.

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