The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won't get much sleep.

Woody Allen’s line is a comic deflation of a famous biblical image of messianic peace—Isaiah’s vision in which natural enemies coexist harmlessly (“the lion shall lie down with the calf”). By adding that “the calf won’t get much sleep,” Allen points to the psychological reality that proclaimed harmony does not erase power imbalances or justified fear. The joke hinges on asymmetry: even if the lion is momentarily still, the calf remains vulnerable and therefore anxious. More broadly, it satirizes utopian promises (political, romantic, or spiritual) by insisting that proximity to danger is not the same as safety, and that the weaker party bears the cost of “peace.”

1) "The lion and the lamb shall lie down together, but the lamb won't get much sleep."