English version of Russian proverb "The hedgehogs got pricked, cried, but continued to eat the cactus"

Question

Is there anything in English similar to this Russian joke/proverb/or you could even say sarcasm:

"The hedgehogs got pricked, cried, but continued to eat the cactus".

It describes people who continue to do something less than optimal (even detrimental in terms of effort or/and money) when better alternatives readily exist.

I'm not sure the Russians made it up in the first place but it's extremely popular on the Internet.

The Russian saying implies there are several ways to achieve something yet people stick to something they learn first and then despite much better options being available they continue to stick to what worked and what they tried the first time. Hedgehogs eat the cactus and they actually get the necessary food and nutrients to survive yet despite better/safer food available in the wild they stick to the cactus.

You can also see "mice" being used instead of "hedgehogs".

Here it is as a Google search query.

And a possible trivia/history/explanation of its origin.

Answer 1

You might say that behavior describes a glutton for punishment, idiomatically. Literally one who is overly fond of/overeats negative consequences, which is exactly what those animals are doing.

From Collins Dictionary:

a person who keeps on doing something which is unpleasant or difficult for them

Usually a glutton for punishment will take on tasks that others find too taxing, unnecessary, or just not worth it.

Another turn of phrase is "They won't let go of the shovel," an allusion to the law of holes, the first being "when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."

Since it's their goal to get the food, and the animals could dig around for it, it's funny in comparison because while not actually digging for cactus, digging into it hurts them. As they can't remember or learn the law of holes, they end up in an infinity/insanity cycle. That hedgehog must be a glutton for punishment.

Answer 2

As user405662 has mentioned, “old habits die hard” is a very well-established saying that describes how people are prone to doing things the way they have always done it and how hard it is to change.

Another phrase is “creature of habit,” as in “people are creatures of habit,” for example. The gist is very similar.

Answer 3

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

While this adage (and many variations like it) is often attributed to Albert Einstein, it's not clear where the statement comes from. The adage is often used to call out someone who repeatedly does an action that isn't working or that does harm. They do not learn from the action not working the first time, so they keep on doing it, hoping for a different outcome. "Maybe this time will be better," the target of this adage might think.

Many, many examples are out there. This 2013 Salon article collected several uses of the cliche among political reporting of the time. Even XKCD (1657) has applied the adage.

Answer 4

This isn't a proverb but rather a joke attributed to Henny Youngman that goes as follows:

The patient says, "Doctor, it hurts when I do this." The doctor says, "Then don't do that!"

It's funny for the same reasons that your proverb is funny: People do self-destructive behaviors and feel the pain as a consequence but still continue. They have the option to not do that but they don't stop.

When I've heard this, sometimes only the first line of dialogue is said ("Doctor, it hurts when I do this") with the assumption that the audience knows the rest. Most of the results I found online have both lines and sometimes context on top of that.

Here are some examples:

• Database problems:

  There’s an old joke that goes, “Doctor, doctor, it hurts when I do this.” While the person in question swings their arm over their head. The doctor’s response is, “Don’t do that.” Problem solved, right?

• Dealing with social media (uses a slightly different phrasing):

  One friend of mine, after I told him what was going on and sent him a few gleaming examples, said to just turn it off for a while, to not look at it. I agree that's excellent advice most of the time. It's the old "Doctor, it hurts when I do this"/"Then don't do that" approach. Don't look at it, and it won't bother you.

• Writing bad Fortran (an example which includes only the first line of dialogue)
• School scores
• Pain while singing
• Pain management for Spina Bifida (taking it quite literally)

Answer 5

From Proverbs 26:11: "As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly."

Answer 6

Not spot on, and not really sarcastic but worth mentioning as I suspect its in some ways similar/related but has not been mentioned by others - "better the devil you know than the devil you don't"

Answer 7

American English: to be in a rut or to be stuck in a rut is not a joke, but describes a similar condition.

It describes a person who is trapped by an inefficient or undesirable routine or established method of doing something. They are trapped because at any given instant, it is easier to keep going in the routine than to do something that would be easier or better in the long run.

The analogy is with a vehicle whose wheels can become stuck in the deeply worn tracks (ruts) left on a dirt path by previous vehicles, making it easy to follow the established path and hard to go anywhere else.

Answer 8

The best I can think of is “to bang one's head against a brick wall” (which, of course, is an idiom rather than a proverb). It exists in many versions in English, and also in other languages.

The similarities are at least that:

• an action is described which is harmful to the person involved;
• that action does not produce the desired result, or at least not in an optimal way.

Answer 9

IMHO there is a consensus that there is no close English equivalent. If you are writing something, why not just say: "As the Russians say, 'The hedgehogs got pricked, cried, but continued to eat the cactus'."? It is a neat expression, so just use it as translated. We do this all the time with Greek and Latin phrases translated: beware Greeks bearing gifts; all roads lead to Rome.

Answer 10

Rudyard Kipling quotes three in a row in his poem, “The Gods of the Copybook Headings”:

That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

The first of these quotes Proverbs 26:11 (“As the dog returns to his vomit, so the fool returns to his folly.”), and the second 2 Peter 2:22 (“The sow that was just washed returns to her mire.”). For context, the Kipling Society explains:

‘Copybook headings’ were proverbs or maxims printed at the top of 19th century British schoolboys’ copybook pages. The students had to write them by hand repeatedly down the page. The poem is built around a series of sayings that would have been familiar to his British and American readers in 1919.

Hence the archaic capitalization of common nouns. Kipling is recalling how he was taught cursive by having to copy verses from an old Bible.

Answer 11

You've heard the phrase "work smarter, not harder". There's a sarcastic variation that flips it around -- to say somebody "works harder, not smarter". I think this almost exactly strikes the meaning of the Russian saying. There may well be better ways of doing it, but the person in question works a lot harder than they need to, rather than applying their intelligence to figure out a better way of doing it.

Closely related to a different "reverse proverb" -- the person who "grasps defeat from the jaws of victory."

Answer 12

"You can take the person out of the place, but you can't take the place out of the person" (on Wiktionary). There are several variations as listed on the Wiktionary page, such as "you can take the boy out of the country, but you cannot take the country out of the boy", "you can take the girl out of Texas, but you can't take the Texas out of the girl".

These capture at least part of the moral of the Russian proverb, which emphasizes the compulsive and unconscious continuation of one's inherent habits. They, however, overlook the aspect of automatic self-harm that is also present. It is possible that the proverb is more focused on the idea of solidity or consistency rather than addiction, but my interpretation may not fully capture the proverb's intended meaning, so please don't hesitate to demonstrate if I am mistaken.