A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

GREAT oaks from little acorns grow

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  c 1385 CHAUCER Troilus & Criseyde II. 1335 As an ook comth of a litel spir [shoot], So thorugh this letter.. Encressen gan desir. 1579 S. GOSSON School of Abuse 20^V But Tall Cedars from little graynes shoote high: great Oakes, from slender rootes spread wide. 1584 J. WITHALS Dict. (rev. ed.) D4 Of a nut springes an hasill, and of an Akorn an hie or tall oke. 1732 T. FULLER Gnomologia no. 4576 The greatest Oaks have been little Acorns. 1777 D. EVERETT in Columbian Orator (1797) 58 Large streams from little fountains flow, Tall oaks from little acorns grow. 1923 Times 13 Oct. 7 Here in England, as nowhere else in the world, ‘great oaks from little acorns grow’. The oak, as the emblem of British strength, has been symbolic in many ways. 2002 Times 28 Mar. 27 One shouldn’t sneer. From little acorns do mighty oak trees grow. "beginnings and endings; great and small
  

great see also BIG fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite them; DEATH is the great leveller; LITTLE strokes fell great oaks; LITTLE thieves are hanged, but great ones escape; there’s no great LOSS without some gain; POVERTY is no disgrace, but it is a great inconvenience; THRIFT is a great revenue; TIME is a great healer.
The GREATER the sinner, the greater the saint

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  1773 R. GRAVES Spiritual Quixote II. VII. xi. It was a maxim with Mr. Whitfield, ‘The greater the Sinner, the greater the Saint.’ 1856 E. HINCHCLIFFE Barthomley vi. How well is the old proverb illustrated in this foul seducer. .. ‘The greater the sinner, the greater the Saint.’ 1964 M. LAVIN Stories I. 293 Ah, well, I always heard it’s the biggest divils that make the best saints, and now I can believe it! "good and evil; wrong-doers