Eggs in one basket

The complete saying is, do not put all your eggs in one basket and one suspects that the origin of the expression was an egg or poultry farmer who found this out to his or her cost. The advice here is obviously to avoid disaster by spreading risk. The first citation usually given is Cervantes Don Quixote (1605) translated into English by 1703. “’Tis the part of a wise man to … not venture all his eggs in one basket.”