079Japanese proverb ことわざ
千丈の堤も蟻の一穴から
せんじょうのつつみもありのいっけつからSenjō no tsutsumi mo ari no ikketsu kara
“The tallest dike fails through an ant's hole.”
The meaning
Great works collapse through small negligences. Minding details is not fussiness: it protects the whole.
At the origin
An image inherited from the Chinese legalist Han Fei, adopted in Japan.
The characters
- 千丈 senjōa thousand fathoms
- の noof (link)
- 堤 tsutsumidike
- も
- 蟻
- の
- 一穴
- から
のParticleLinks two words: possession or belonging, like “of”.
In practice
Fix the small crack today, while it is small.
Editorial note
Classical Chinese origin (Han Feizi).