Pride goes before a fall

Pride precedes disaster. An elliptical version of proverbs xvi. 18 (AV) Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Pride‥schal doun falle.
[c 1390 Gower Confessio Amantis i. 3062]

First or last foule pryde wyll haue a fall.
[1509 A. Barclay Ship of Fools 195^V]

I am now reduced to think‥of the weather. Pride must have a fall.
[1784 S. Johnson Letter 2 Aug. (1952) iii. 191]

The bell's main weakness was where man's blood had flawed it. And so pride went before the fall.
[1856 H. Melville Piazza Tales 431]

I suppose he thinks he'd be mayor himself. ‥Pride goeth before a fall.
[1930 W. S. Maugham Cakes & Ale v.]

The spectacle of Xerxes' defeat tremendously reinforced the traditional conviction that pride goes before a fall.
[1980 M. L. West in K. J. Dover Ancient Greek Literature iii.]

Millicent had disagreed. Vanity, pure and simple. Pride goeth before a fall. It was one of the maxims by which Millicent lived.
[2001 K. Hall page Body in Moonlight epilogue 233]

Related to: pride; retribution

Bibliography of major proverb collections and works cited from modern editions is available here.