Tag: A stitch in time saves nine

A STITCH IN TIME SAVES NINE

“A Stitch in Time Saves Nine” is a phrase and has a lot of wise meanings inside it when understood. This phrase reflects the hole in a cloth and tries to make the people understand that, a small hole in a cloth keeps on getting bigger if it is not fixed on time. It means that timely effort will help in preventing more work in future and also tries to teach – Prevention is Better than Cure. Hence, if a problem exists then one must fix it immediately. If not fixed in time. then even small problem can lead to a bigger problem.

Importance of “A Stitch in Time Saves Nine”

  • This phrase tells about the “Importance of Time“. Time is the most important part of life and according to many successful individuals, time is money. Time is precious because time is limited. There are 24 hours in a day and its constant and the human life of a particular person is also fixed, which shows that we can’t afford to waste time at all. And this is what the phrase describes.
  • Another concept that the phrase describes is “Effort in Time“. This is possible by dealing with problems in proper time. While dealing with a problem, there’s a need to contribute proper amount of effort in the right time and when the problem is not solved and delayed, then it will make the problem more hard to solve and more time will be consumed. So, following “Stitch in Time Saves Nine” saves effort and time.
  • Another advantage of the phrase is “Better Decision Making“. Following this concept ensures that a person has sufficient time to handle the problem and this is the most wise decision. This shows that within problem time interval, the person will solve the problem efficiently. And when the person delays the problem the time available for solving problem will be reduced . This will cause shortage of time. This will make the person more stressful and nervous. This would lead to poor decision.

This proverb is a learning for everyone. It is an important advice for everyone. It doesn’t target any specific person or age group or people rather a lesson for all, for everyone from different phases of life and walks of life. It advices the individual to carry out the responsibilities and immediately solve problem, how ever small and simple it may be.

FOR EXAMPLE: To students, it advices to get their doubts cleared from the beginning itself otherwise they will keep getting bigger and will need more time, affect the performance. Small doubts when not cleared will lead to bigger doubts and finally affect the scores. This advice is also important for officials and professionals and suggests them not to neglect the problems and postpone them. It is important to solve every problem with keen interest and sense of responsibility. Have you noticed, how with time the problems keep getting bigger and get things complicated ? This is what the proverb tries to teach everyone and warn us.

Action at right time and required moment saves a lot of time and effort in the future. Delayed actions, adds to the problems and aggravates them. Thus, we should tackle them before it gets difficult. This saying has a very valuable and rational meaning and has a lot to learn from.

A Stitch in time Saves Nine

“A stitch in time saves nine”

This is an old saying which means that immediate action taken as soon as something goes wrong saves a lot of work and expenses later. Like all other sayings and proverbs this saying is also steeped in great wisdom, lifelong experience and the truth. Sayings etc are like valuable pearls taken out from the deep ocean of life. Proverbs express human learning and wisdom so appropriately, exactly and briefly that the whole universe appears to be confined to a room. “What often was thought but never so well expressed”, applies very accurately to the sayings and proverbs.

Timely action is of great significance. An evil nipped in bud, a mistake corrected on the right time or a damage mended before it is too late would save us a lot of expense, trouble and time. In every walks of life timely action and remedies are of vital importance. We must set right a wrong immediately or else it would grow into a very serious problem difficult to be tackled in future. Problems not addressed in the very beginning often become unmanageable later. The same wisdom is being highlighted by another saying, “Prevention is better than cure”. We should not allow a disease to originate and develop at all. It should be prevented from being born. Why a problem should be allowed to crop up at all? The best is to prevent a bad situation from being arising. Cure and remedy is of secondary importance and it involves more efforts, expenditure, labour and time.

For example, let us take formation of bad habits- smoking, drinking, eating too much sweets, seeing too much of television programmes or indulging in playing cards. These bad habits can be very easily acquired but are very difficult to be eliminated and rooted out. If a child is found smoking or stealing or telling a lie, he or she must be immediately checked and the evil nipped in the very initial stage before it becomes a habit. Once a bad habit is formed it is very difficult to get rid of it. We should never connive at the bad habits of the children. They should be firmly rooted out and all possible steps taken so that the child does not become habitual of them. Similarly, we elders should always be at a guard and be ruthless in stamping out our bad and undesirable tendencies, attitudes, and ideas before they mature into habits and deep rooted practices. The force of habit is very powerful and obliges a person to practice that evil action again and again. If he does not repeat it, he feels very uncomfortable and restless. And one evil leads to so many other evils. A habit of stealing things would lead a person to telling lies, cheating, drinking, drug addiction, illegal and immoral activities and the company of anti social elements. It creates an endless vicious circle. Once you throw a stone into the water and then there endless waves in circles, one after the other, then more and still more. You cannot escape it. Things should be mended and set right then and there. Time or opportunity lost once, is lost forever.

Many of our tragedies, disasters, losses and evils are because we do not pay heed to this saying. In personal, social and national life, there are many examples which very well bring home the truth and wisdom of the saying. Evils in their very serious and devastating forms happen only because we allow them to grow and strike roots deeper and fail to nip them in the bud. A soldier lost the battle and was disgraced only because he did not nail the shoe of his horse in time. A small negligence and so much loss!