From the practice of mending a small tear in cloth when first noticed ("in time"), before it becomes a larger one requiring more stitches.
a stitch in time saves nine
- A little effort expended sooner to fix a small problem prevents it from becoming a larger problem requiring more effort to fix later.
a timely effort can prevent larger problems
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 小洞不補，大洞吃苦 / 小洞不补，大洞吃苦 (xiǎo dòng bù bǔ, dà dòng chīkǔ), 防微杜漸 / 防微杜渐 (zh) (fángwēidùjiàn), 事半功倍 (zh) (shìbàngōngbèi) (half the work, twice the effect)
- Danish: udsæt ikke til i morgen, det du kan gøre i dag
- Dutch: werk op tijd maakt welbereid
- Finnish: parempi oja tukkia kuin joki
- French: un point fait à temps en épargne cent, mieux vaut prévenir que guérir (fr)
- German: was du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf morgen (de)
- Greek: κάλλιο γαϊδουρόδενε παρά γαϊδουρογύρευε (el) (kállio gaïdouródene pará gaïdourogýreve)
- Hungarian: a rest kétszer fárad (hu)
- Italian: meglio prevenire che curare, prevenire è meglio che curare, è meglio prevenire che curare
- Japanese: 今日の一針明日の十針 (kyō no hitohari asu no tohari)
- Korean: 호미로 막을 것을 가래로 막는다 (ko) (homiro mageul geoseul garaero mangneunda, literally “what can be stopped up with a short-handled hoe must be done with a shovel later”)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: utsett ikke til i morgen, det du kan gjøre i dag (no)
- Polish: lepiej zapobiegać niż leczyć (pl)
- Portuguese: é melhor prevenir do que remediar
- Russian: оди́н стежо́к, сде́ланный во́время, сто́ит девяти́ (odín stežók, sdélannyj vóvremja, stóit devjatí)
- Serbo-Croatian: ono što možeš učiniti danas, ne ostavljaj za sutra
- Spanish: más vale prevenir que curar
- Swedish: bättre att stämma i bäcken än i ån; (ellipsis) stämma i bäcken (sv)
- Turkish: bir mıh nal kurtarır, bir nal bir at kurtarır
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