Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
1240
AUTHOR:
Benjamin Franklin (1706–90)
QUOTATION:
For want of a Nail the Shoe was lost; for want of a Shoe the Horse was lost; and for want of a Horse the Rider was lost; being overtaken and slain by the Enemy, all for want of Care about a Horse-shoe Nail.
ATTRIBUTION:
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, “Poor Richard’s Almanack,” June 1758, The Complete Poor Richard Almanacks, facsimile ed., vol. 2, pp. 375, 377 (1970).
