A little mischief is too much.
Meaning: Even small wrongdoings corrupt character and inevitably lead to greater transgressions if left unchecked.
Origin: Recorded in A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, an undated collection published in London by Whittaker & Co. around 1880 and credited to Thomas Preston. Its earlier history hasn't been traced.
More proverbs about Wisdom
- Mischiefs come by the pound and go away by the ounce. — Problems accumulate quickly through negligence but dissolve only through sustained, delib…
- Money is more easily made than made use of. — Earning wealth requires less wisdom than spending it prudently without self-destruction.
- The abundance of money ruins youth. — Wealth without struggle strips young people of the resilience and character earned throug…
- Tis money makes the mare to go. — Without financial resources, even the most capable asset remains immobilized and worthles…
- He that hath no money needeth no purse. — Poverty eliminates the burden of safeguarding wealth you don't possess.
- The moon's not seen where the sun shines. — Lesser truths become invisible when greater ones dominate our attention and understanding.
From our tongue twisters
- The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick. — Believed by Guinness to be among the hardest in English — 'six/sick/sheikh/sheep' blur in…
- خالد خلّى خلال خاله في الخلاء. (Khālid khallā khalāl khālih fī al-khalāʾ.) — A rapid-fire 'kh' (خ) drill — the throaty fricative that non-Arabic speakers find uniquel…
- غاب الغيم وغابت غابة الغاب. (Ghāb al-ghaym wa ghābat ghābat al-ghāb.) — An unbroken sequence of 'gh' (غ) — a voiced uvular fricative that drills the back of the…