proverb · Words worth keeping
Look to the main chance.
Look to the main chance.
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
Pay attention to the opportunity or interest that matters most to your purpose. The advice favors practical focus, while leaving open whether pursuing that advantage is fair or worth its costs.
Example
An organiser protects the event’s accessibility budget instead of spending it on an impressive decoration.
Deeper explanation and when to use it
The main chance is read as the central opportunity for advancing one’s situation. The instruction asks someone not to become distracted by smaller details while a consequential choice is available. It can support sensible planning, such as protecting the essential aim of a project. It can also sound narrowly self-interested when gain becomes the only standard. The useful question is what truly matters and what a person would sacrifice to obtain it. Focusing on an advantage need not mean disregarding promises, relationships or the people affected by a decision.
When to use it
Use it to refocus attention on a central practical aim.
Keep in mind
A personal advantage is not automatically a fair or worthwhile aim.
An interpretation of the words, not a claim about their earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Date unknown
- Culture
- English