stitch in time saves nine
Prov. If you fix a small problem right away, it will not become a bigger problem later. Let's patch the roof before that hole gets bigger. A stitch in time saves nine.
stitch in time saves nine, a
Solving a difficulty while it is small may save a great deal of trouble in the end. The analogy to mending a small rip versus sewing an entire new seam was a proverb by the eighteenth century, appearing in Thomas Fuller’s 1732 collection. It has been repeated dozens of times since; Ogden Nash played with it in the title of a verse collection, A Stitch Too Late Is My Fate (1938).