The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (49 page)

a
1200
Old English Homilies
(EETS) 2nd Ser. 179
The more [bigger] fishes in the se eten the lasse [smaller].
c
1300
in
English Metrical Homilies
(1862) 136
Al this werld es bot a se,.. And gret fisches etes the smale. For riche men of this werd [world] etes, That pouer [the poor] wit thair travail getes.
1608
Pericles
II. i. 27
Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea. —Why, as men do a-land—the great ones eat up the little ones.
1979
New Society
6 Dec. 557
The state today .. seems like nothing so much [as] a huge aquarium …Big fish eat little fish, and the great fish eat the big.
great and small

 
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1733
Poems
II. 651
The Vermin only teaze and pinch Their Foes superior by an Inch. So Nat'ralists observe, a Flea Hath smaller Fleas that on him prey, And these have smaller Fleas to bite' em, And so proceed
ad infinitum
.
1872
Budget of Paradoxes
377
Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite' em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so
ad infinitum
. And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on; While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on.
1979
Posthumous Paper
ii.
There will be a long article in the
Sunday Chronicle
.. and I'm afraid the
Sunday Grub
has got onto the story as well. Big fleas and little fleas, you know—.
associates
;
great and small

 
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see also
PROVIDENCE is always on the side of the big battalions
.

 
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Commonly attributed to the boxer Robert Fitzsimmons, prior to a fight
c
1900 (see quot. 1902). (
Come
is sometimes used instead of
are
.) A similar form is however found in earlier related proverbs, such as:
1493
H. PARKER
Dives & Pauper
R7
^V
It is more synne in the man For the higher degre [position] the harder is the fal;
1670
J. RAY
English Proverbs
102 The higher standing the lower fall. The idea can be traced back at least as far as the 4th-cent.
AD
Latin poet Claudian (
In Rufinum
I. 22
Tolluntur in altum Ut lapsu graviore ruant
, men are raised on high in order that they may fall more heavily).
1902
National Police Gazette
27 Sept. 6
‘If I can get close enough,’ he [Fitzsimmons] once said, ‘I'll guarantee to stop almost anybody. The bigger the man, the heavier the fall.’
1927
‘’
Mosaic Earring
i.
‘I haven't seen .. even an imitation of the blossom I would have to find before I surrender my sweet freedom.’ ‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall.’
1942
Footsteps behind Her
IV. 157
Those guys don't bother me. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
1971
(
song-title
)
The bigger they come the harder they fall.
1981
Promises to Keep
ix.
‘I thought a big, beautiful place like this would be an exception to the general decline.’ ‘Sometimes,’ Mrs. Benjamin said sagely, ‘the bigger they are, the harder they fall.’
great and small
;
misfortune

 
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