trust but verify

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

extend trust to someone or something but independently confirm that your trust is warranted rather than accepting claims at face value; popularised in international diplomacy by Ronald Reagan, who used the Russian proverb doveryai, no proveryai during nuclear arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union in the 1980s; in cybersecurity the phrase has been largely replaced by zero trust architecture, which argues that no entity should be trusted by default regardless of its position inside or outside the network perimeter