ProverbWisdomEnglish origin1732

A stitch in time saves nine

Meaning: Fixing a problem early prevents bigger issues later.

Origin: First recorded in Thomas Fuller's Gnomologia (1732), a collection of proverbs and maxims, as "A stitch in time may save nine." A small tear mended at once takes a single stitch; left to widen, it takes many. The number nine seems chosen as much for its sound as for its arithmetic.

Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, German, Portuguese, and 2 more languages

  • French: Mieux vaut prévenir que guérir (literally: Better to prevent than to cure)
  • Spanish: Más vale prevenir que lamentar (literally: Better to prevent than to regret)
  • Japanese: 転ばぬ先の杖 (Korobanu saki no tsue) (literally: A cane before falling)
  • German: Vorbeugen ist besser als Heilen (literally: Preventing is better than healing)
  • Portuguese: Mais vale prevenir do que remediar (literally: Better to prevent than to cure)
  • Korean: 호미로 막을 것을 가래로 막는다 (Homiro mageul geoseul garaero mangneunda) (literally: Blocking with a spade what a hoe could have blocked)
  • Turkish: Bir mıh bir nal kurtarır, bir nal bir at kurtarır (literally: One nail saves a shoe, one shoe saves a horse)

More proverbs about Wisdom

Explore another collection: Untranslatable Words

Words that capture a feeling or idea English needs a whole sentence for.

  • Yugen A profound, mysterious sense of the universe that is too deep for words — the feeling of…
  • Koi no yokan The intuitive feeling upon first meeting someone that you will inevitably fall in love wi…
  • Amae The comfortable feeling of depending on another's goodwill — leaning into someone's indul…

Browse all untranslatable words →

Keep exploring

Explore all proverbs →