For the sake of the sake?

  • pera11

    Senior Member
    It's from X-Men Days of Future Past.
    Logan says:Look, in the beginning, the Sentinels were just targeting mutants.It was a slaughter, leaving only the worst of humanity in charge.

    Then Charles Xavier replies: Look, let's just say that for the sake of the sake, that I choose to believe you, that I choose to help you.
    Last edited:


    Member Emeritus
    English - US
    If this was, perhaps, a subtitle rather than something you heard, my guess is that it's a mistranslation of "for the sake of the cause".


    Senior Member
    Native language: English (BrE)
    I Googled "for the sake of the sake", not expecting to find much. I was astonished to find dozens of examples!

    They seem to fall into three categories:

    - Those that appear to be typos, the kind where someone unintentionally types the same word or phrase twice: "we'll do it for the sake of the sake of the children".

    - Those where "for the sake of the sake" seems to stand for "just for the sake of it", or "for the sake of argument".

    - Those where it's an exclamation, "For the sake of the sake!", much as people say "For goodness' sake!" or "For heaven's sake!"

    Most of the instances I found were in the first category; but in your quotation, pera, it looks like the second one of those uses.

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