“Vertrauen ist gut, Kontrolle ist besser.”
This is a common idiom in German that people use when they want to excuse that they check something instead of just believing someone’s word. It’s the counterpart of
“Trust but verify.”
But the English version sounds more like a piece of life advice while the German sounds a bit more, well, controlling. Think of a manager who has a tight eye on what the team is doing.
The literal translation is:
“Trust is good, checking/verifying is better.”
This is a nice example for German kontrollieren and how its meaning is a bit broader than that of its English brother.
Because kontrollieren can be about both – actually “managing” someone’s actions but also just “verifying” some pieces of information.