Don’t take unnecessary risks. Profit from the experience of others. The
proverb can be better understood if the ‘beaten road’ would read ‘beaten
track’ or ‘well-worn path’. It is safer to keep to such a path leading through
the woods, however much it winds, than to leave it and try to find a more
direct route. The path is well worn and many people must have passed that way,
so it is safe for us to do the same.

##### See also:

* The longest way round is the nearest way home