picking one's battles

Verb

pick one's battles (third-person singular simple present picks one's battles, present participle picking one's battles, simple past and past participle picked one's battles)

1. (idiomatic) To involve oneself in disputes only if one is likely to win.

   Synonyms:

   choose one's battles

2. (idiomatic) To take a stand for a cause only if it is truly important enough to be worth the costs.
   • “[…]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...2010 May 25, Lynn Hirschberg, quoting M.I.A., “M.I.A.’s Agitprop Pop”, in The New York Times, →ISSN