For want of a nail the shoe is lost; for want of a shoe the horse is lost; for want of a horse the rider is lost.
Meaning: Small negligences compound catastrophically; ignoring minor problems cascades into complete failure.
Origin: George Herbert's Outlandish Proverbs (1640) records this chain, and Benjamin Franklin repeated it in Poor Richard's Almanack, adding that for want of care about a horseshoe nail, a battle may be lost. The idea is much older, going back to medieval verse: small neglect leads, step by step, to disaster.
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
- French: Faute d'un point, Martin perdit son âne (literally: For want of a dot, Martin lost his donkey)
- Spanish: Por un punto se pierde un zapato (literally: For want of a nail the shoe is lost)
- Japanese: 千丈の堤も蟻の一穴から (Senjō no tsutsumi mo ari no ikketsu kara) (literally: Even a thousand-fathom dyke collapses from a single ant hole)
- German: Kleine Ursachen, große Wirkungen (literally: Small causes, great effects)
More proverbs about Wisdom
- He that is warm thinks all are so. — The comfortable forget others suffer deprivation and misjudge universal experience by the…
- He that hath a head of wax must not walk in the sun. — Those with fragile vulnerabilities should avoid situations that expose or exploit their w…
- Let the weakest go to the wall. — The vulnerable are sacrificed first when resources or power become scarce or contested.
- Where it is weakest there the thread breaketh. — Failure occurs at the point of greatest vulnerability, not where strength exists.
- Their folly pleads the privilege of wealth. — Wealth allows the foolish to escape natural consequences that would humble ordinary peopl…
- Everything is the worse for wearing. — Constant use and time erode even the finest things, diminishing their quality and value.
From our untranslatable words
- Shemomechama — Eating well past fullness simply because the food is too delicious to stop.
- Prozvonit — To call someone's phone and hang up after one ring, so they call you back and you save th…
- Boketto — Staring off into the distance with your mind pleasantly empty, thinking of nothing at all.