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For Want of a Nail (proverb)

"For Want of a Nail" is a proverbial rhyme showing that small actions can result in large consequences.

Analysis

This proverb has been around in many forms for centuries (see history below), and describes a situation where permitting some small undesirable situation will allow gradual and inexorable worsening. The rhyme is thus a good illustration of the "The butterfly effect", and ideas presented in chaos theory, involving sensitive dependence on initial conditions; the initial condition being the presence or absence of the horseshoe nail.

An important thing to note is that these chains of causality are only ever seen in hindsight. Nobody ever lamented, upon seeing his unshod horse, that the kingdom would eventually fall because of it.

A somewhat similar idea is referred to in the metaphor known as The Camel's nose.

Historical References

The proverb is found in a number of forms, starting as early back as the 14th century:

Cf. late 15th-cent. Fr. par ung seul clou perd on ung bon cheval, by just one nail one loses a good horse;.(c 1390 Gower Confessio Amantis v. 4785).

For sparinge of a litel cost Fulofte time a man hath lost The large cote for the hod [hood].(Unknown)

The French-men haue a military prouerbe, The losse of a nayle, the losse of an army. The want of a nayle looseth the shooe, the losse of shooe troubles the horse, the horse indangereth the rider, the rider breaking his ranke molests the company, so farre as to hazard the whole Army. (1629 T. Adams Works 714)

For want of a naile the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost. (1640 George Herbert Outlandish Proverbs no. 499)

‘Don't care’ was the man who was to blame for the well-known catastrophe: ‘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 man was lost.’ (1880 S. Smiles Duty x.)

Benjamin Franklin included a version of the rhyme in his Poor Richard's Almanack when America and England were on opposite sides during the American Revolutionary War.(Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, June 1758, The Complete Poor Richard Almanacks, facsimile ed., vol. 2, pp. 375, 377)

You bring your long-tailed shovel, an' I'll bring me navvy [device for excavating earth]. We mighten' want them, an', then agen, we might: for want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost, an' for want of a horse the man was lost—aw, that's a darlin' proverb, a daarlin'.(1925 S. O'casey Juno & Paycock i. 16)

During World War II, this verse was framed and hung on the wall of the Anglo-American Supply Headquarters in London, England.

Modern day references

Along with long history of the proverb listed above, it has continued to be referenced since the mid 20th century in modern culture. Examples include:

Literary

For Want of a Nail: If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga is an alternate history novel published in 1973 by the American business historian Robert Sobel. The novel depicts an alternate world where the American Revolution was unsuccessful.
Cannibals And Missionaries by Mary McCarthy quotes on page 199 "No detail... was too small to be passed over....‘For want of a nail,’ as the proverb said.
JLA: The Nail is a three-issue comic book limited series published by DC Comics in 1998 about the Justice League of America, using the English ("Knight") variation of the rhyme as a theme.

Musical

Todd Rundgren's song "The Want of a Nail" from his album Nearly Human uses the rhyme as a metaphor for a man whose lived his entire life without love, and how, if you "multiply it a billion times" and "spread it all over the world," things fall apart.

Cinema and Television

The movie The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) has a Yakuza boss quoting this proverb to his nephew in Japanese.
In the movie The Verdict (1982) by Sidney Lumet, James Mason refers to this proverb. You can only hear the line "For the want of a shoe the horse was lost."
The title of the season two episode of M*A*S*H, "For Want of a Boot", is adapted from the proverb. The episode's concept itself is also based on the proverb, with the character of Hawkeye going through a convoluted process involving several camp personnel, in order to get a new boot.

Political

For want of nail the battle was lost. Well, Republicans may have found just the right nail to win the entitlement battle. (1995 National Review 12 June 10)

Bibliography

Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, June 1758, The Complete Poor Richard Almanacks, facsimile ed., vol. 2, pp. 375, 377
G. Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, c. 1640, no. 499
Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, ed. Iona and Peter Opie, Oxford 1951, pg 324