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I'm looking for an idiom that is equivalent to the Portuguese:
Quem tudo quer, tudo perde.
Who wants everything, loses everything.
It basically points out that being too ambitious will have bad consequences: not only does one not get what one's striving for, but one also ends up losing what one already had (and probably took for granted).
This idiom should be usable in everyday speech.
Nearest equivalent is grasp all, lose all
which reflects Aesops “Much wants more and loses all.”
and a more modern version by Vikrant Parsai He who wants everything every time will lose everything any time.
Subsequently a search found others matching with Grasp all, lose all.
see http://updatedwordsforum.forumotion.com/t150-grasp-all-lose-all-quem-tudo-quer-tudo-perde
Bite off more than you can chew. The Cambridge Dicionary says:
to try to do something that is too difficult for you:
[Example] I think he's bitten off more than he can chew taking all those classes. (Emphasis added.)
This is a very common idiom, and, it is understood that the results will be bad. However, the Portuguese idiom says that the results will be catastrophic (will lose everything), and the English idiom does not say or necessarily imply catastrophe. However, one possible outcome in the example above is that the student will flunk out or go on probation, which is nearly catastrophic.
Other uses might be, for example, starting a business at too ambitious a level:
She has bitten off more than she can chew, leasing so much space in this market. She'll go bankrupt.
Or, bringing in an example pertinent to the season:
You're going to fix a six course Christmas dinner for 30? All by yourself? You've bitten off more than you can chew!
One can imagine the chaos in the kitchen if the cook is not highly experienced!
"Wanting more and losing everything" is the moral of Aesop's "The Goose That Laid Golden Eggs" and seems to fit perfectly.
I'd also suggest...
"To kill the Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs", an idiom used of an unprofitable action motivated by greed. It refers to one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 87 in the Perry Index, a story that also has a number of Eastern analogues. Many other stories contain geese that lay golden eggs though certain versions change them for hens that lay golden eggs.
or
"Those who have plenty want more and so lose all they have."
source Wikipedia
I keep thinking about "like Icarus flying too close to the Sun".
But it would likely not be used in casual conversation.
There's a great allusion for this from Greek Mythology.
Flying too close to the sun
There are many long/short explanations of this (its an interesting myth) - but this one i found from http://www.sps186.org/downloads/basic/278500/allusions sums it up concisely.
Icarus/Fly too Close to the Sun - In Greek mythology, Icarus and his father, Daedalus, escaped from the island of Crete, by means of wings constructed by Daedalus. The wings were held on by means of wax, and although Daedalus had warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun, Icarus did not heed the warning; the wax melted, and he fell to his death in the Aegean Sea.
To be “an Icarus” or to “fly too close to the sun” is to fail or be destroyed because of lack of caution or excessive ambition.
