A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

LITTLE pitchers have large ears
Children overhear much that is not meant for them. A pitcher’s ears are its handles.
□1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs II. V G4^V Auoyd your children, small pitchers haue wide eares. 1594 SHAKESPEARE Richard III II. iv. 37 Good madam, be not angry with the child.—Pitchers have ears. 1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew s.v. Pitcher-bawd, Little Pitchers have large ears. 1840 R. H. BARHAM Ingoldsby Legends 1st Ser. 226 A truth Insisted on much in my earlier years, To wit, ‘Little pitchers have very long ears!’ 1972 A. PRICE Colonel Butler’s Wolf i. He watched her shoo her sisters safely away. .. He had been lamentably careless in forgetting that little pitchers had large ears. 2002 Washington Times 10 Feb. D2 Are you familiar with the old saying, ‘Little pitchers have big ears’? Conversations . . within your son’s hearing about your problems or about the problems you’re having with him will affect his behavior negatively. ■ eavesdroppers
A LITTLE pot is soon hot
A small person is easily roused to anger or passion.

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  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.

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  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