throw out the baby with the bath water

Idioms  

1. Discard something valuable along with something not wanted. For example, I know you don't approve of that one item in the bill but we shouldn't throw out the baby with the bath water by voting the bill down. This expression, with its vivid image of a baby being tossed out with a stream of dirty water, is probably translated from a German proverb, Das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten (“Pour the baby out with the bath”). It was first recorded in English in 1853 by Thomas Carlyle, who translated many works from German.

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Example Sentences

At what point do you throw out the baby with the bath water?

From New York Times • Dec. 12, 2017

We Americans should not let our allergy to bureaucracy cause us to throw out the baby with the bath water.

From Washington Post

The latter is not a popular ambition at the moment, but liberated women should not throw out the baby with the bath water.

From Time Magazine Archive

But perhaps because no pediatrician would ever throw out the baby with the bath water, Spock shies away from the violent implications of revolutionary radicalism.

From Time Magazine Archive