Proverb question

[scripsi]

Proverbs are always tricky to translate, and I’m stuck. In Swedish we have a saying ”Summan av lasterna är alltid konstant”. Directly translated it means The number of the vices always stays the same, meaning that if you quit one vice, another one crops up. Like starting to eat too much candy after quitting smoking. Is there any proverb in English with the same meaning?

Comments

[darklingsluck]

"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

That's the closest that I can think of.

[scripsi]

Thank you! Yes, that seems pretty close! :)

[lirazel]

I can't think of one, but it's a very good proverb!

[ambyr]

I don't think there's a proverb with the same meaning, but if you want a colloquial phrase that would make sense to English readers, "playing whac-a-mole with vices" would probably work.

[senmut]

Given personal experience (Mom replaced alcohol with shopping), I feel like I should know this one... but it is not coming to mind. Useful, that proverb would be.

[starshipfox]

Not really, but it's an excellent proverb! I'm commenting because it makes me think of the Hydra -- you cut off one head and two more grow. Which isn't exactly the same, but carries a similar vibe.

[hannah]

"Same shit, different day" comes close.

[scripsi]

Thank you! That's quite similar.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, I don't think we have one like that! We are more optimistic about getting rid of a vice here and there? :lol:

Although you could use the hydra heads allusion - as fast as you cut them off, more grow back?

[scripsi]

LOL!

Well, the hydra sort of works, only it gets two more head for the one you cut off, and the point is that the number of vices stays the same.

[thisbluespirit]

Let the vices multiply!!


Um, well, maybe not...

[scripsi]

LOL! (Though I'm sure the Master would approve of that approach...)

[rosefox]

"Out of the frying pan, into the fire" has some of the same vibe of not being able to escape general badness even if you get out of a specific bad situation. But I can't think of anything more directly comparable.

[scripsi]

Thank you! It's in the same area, at least. :)

[misura]

The closest I can think of is 'A fox may change its hair but not its tricks' but that's more about people than behavior ('someone may change specific tactics/behavior, but they're not going to change personalities').

Similarly (according to google, though I did know some of these): 'a tiger cannot change its stripes', 'a leopard cannot change its spots', 'one door closes, another opens' and 'when God closes a door, He opens a window'. (The first two are negative: bad people will stay bad; the last two are positive: you think something's gone, but you've gotten something similar back, just a bit different.)

ETA: Trading one vice/addiction for another is not a proverb, as such, but it seems the closest expression of the phenomenon, maybe?

[scripsi]

Trading one vice/addiction for another is not a proverb, as such, but it seems the closest expression of the phenomenon, maybe?

Yes, that seems to be the closest. :)

[a_phoenixdragon]

darklingsluck has it on the nose. :D