A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

A LITTLE pot is soon hot

A small person is easily roused to anger or passion.

1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs I. xi. D2 It is wood [mad] at a woorde,

little pot soone whot. 1593 SHAKESPEARE Taming of Shrew iv. i. 6 Now were not I a

little pot and soon hot, my very lips might freeze to my teeth. 1670 J. RAY English

Proverbs 115 A little pot’s soon hot. .. Little persons are commonly cholerick. 1884 C.

READE Perilous Secret II. xv. Cheeky little beggar, But.. ‘a little pot is soon hot.’ 1930

R. K. WEEKES Mignonette xxiii. ‘Oh well,’ she quite obviously swallowed down her

grievance, still simmering, ‘I suppose you’ll say little pots are soon hot.’ anger; great

and small

LITTLE strokes fell great oaks

Cf. ERASMUS Adages I. viii. multis ictibus deiicitur quercus, the oak is felled by many
blows.

c 1400 Romaunt of Rose l. 3688 For no man at the firste strok Ne may nat felle down

an ok. 1539 R. TAVERNER tr. Erasmus’ Adages 26 V Wyth many strokes is an oke

ouerthrowen. Nothyng is so stronge but that lyttell and lyttell maye be brought downe.

1591 SHAKESPEARE Henry VI, Pt. 3 II. i. 54 And many strokes, though with a little axe,

Hews down and fells the hardest-timber’d oak. By many hands your father was subdu’d.

1757 B. FRANKLIN Poor Richard Improved: 1758 (Mar.) Stick to it steadily and you

will see great Effects; for..Little Strokes fell great Oaks. 1869 C. H. SPURGEON John

Ploughman’s Talk xxii. ‘By little strokes Men fell great oaks.’ By a spadeful at a time the

navvies digged..the embankment. 1981 Family Circle Feb. 57 From the cradle to the

grave we are reminded that.. great oaks are only felled by a repetition of little strokes.

great and small

LITTLE thieves are hanged, but great ones escape

Cf. late 14th-cent. Fr. les petits larrons sont penduez, non pas les grands, little thieves are
hanged, not big ones.

1639 J. CLARKE Parœmiologia Anglo-Latina 172 Little theeves are hang’d, but