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Who really said it

Pride comes before a fall

A paraphrase of the Bible — Proverbs 16:18 The Bible (Book of Proverbs) Proverbs 16:18 · King James Version, 1611
Disputed Free to reuse

The thought is genuinely biblical, but the exact words are not scripture. The closest verse, Proverbs 16:18, reads in the 1611 King James Version: “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” The familiar one-liner compresses those two clauses into one and modernises ‘goeth’ first to ‘goes’ and then to ‘comes’ — so no Bible printed the sentence as it is usually quoted.

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed — copy with the correction

“Pride comes before a fall” Proverbs 16:18 (King James Version, 1611): "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." The popular "pride comes before a fall" is a later paraphrase.

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In context

Evoking the world of The Book of Proverbs — wisdom literature traditionally ascribed to King Solomon. Theme: "Pride comes before a fall". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Pride comes before a fall". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The verse behind the saying

Nearest verse
Proverbs 16:18
Translation
King James Version, 1611
Actual KJV wording
“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”
Popular form
A truncated, modernised folk paraphrase — not a verse in any Bible

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

The full KJV verse (Proverbs 16:18) is a two-part parallelism. “Pride comes before a fall” keeps ‘pride’ from the first clause and ‘a fall’ from the second, dropping ‘destruction’ and the ‘haughty spirit’ entirely.

Proverbs 16:18 at Bible Hub (KJV and parallel translations)

How we verified this

  • Wiktionary derives the saying directly from scripture, calling it “probably a truncation of Proverbs 16:18” and printing the 1611 wording “Pride goeth before destruction: and an hautie spirit before a fall” (Wiktionary).
  • The King James wording of Proverbs 16:18 is “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” — the modern ESV renders it “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall,” and the NIV “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
  • Grammarist traces the drift in wording: the biblical “goeth” form “morphed into pride goes before a fall, and then finally, pride comes before a fall” (Grammarist).
Public domain

The source text, Proverbs 16:18 in the King James Version, was first published in 1611 and is long in the public domain in the United States. The shortened proverb “pride comes before a fall” is an anonymous folk paraphrase with no identifiable modern author, so it carries no live copyright.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Almost scripture, but not quite

People quote “pride comes before a fall” as if it were a verse. The idea is biblical, but no Bible prints that sentence — it is a compressed, modernised paraphrase.

The Bible paraphrase

No translation reads “pride comes before a fall.” The King James Version of Proverbs 16:18 reads “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” — two clauses the saying collapses into one.

Folk usage modernised

Even the popular form is unstable: Grammarist notes it drifted from ‘goeth’ to ‘goes’ to ‘comes’ over time (Grammarist), so the ‘comes’ version is the furthest from any printed verse.

The genuine text is Proverbs 16:18 — “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” — which Wiktionary identifies as the source the modern proverb truncates.

Context

Why the short form stuck

Proverbs is built from tight, two-part couplets, and everyday speech tends to keep the vivid halves and drop the rest. Here the memorable pairing is ‘pride’ and ‘a fall’ — so the middle terms, ‘destruction’ and the ‘haughty spirit,’ fell away, leaving a crisp cause-and-effect proverb.

The result is a saying that feels scriptural and carries the authority of the Bible, while being shorter and blunter than anything actually printed in it.

The Bible supplies the idea; the pithy one-liner is the work of centuries of retelling.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Humility Failure

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Wiktionary: pride comes before a fallen.wiktionary.org

Etymology entry calling the saying a truncation of Proverbs 16:18, with the 1611 KJV wording.
Proverbs 16:18 (Bible Hub)biblehub.com

KJV, ESV and NIV renderings side by side, plus the underlying Hebrew of the verse.
Grammarist: pride comes / goeth before a fallgrammarist.com

Traces how the biblical ‘goeth’ form shifted to ‘goes’ and then ‘comes.’
What does ‘pride goes before a fall’ mean?gotquestions.org

Explains the common shortened quotation and its relation to the full Proverbs 16:18 verse.
Book of Proverbs (Wikipedia)en.wikipedia.org

Background on the biblical wisdom book containing the verse, its dating and traditional Solomonic attribution.

The source behind the saying

Where the idea comes from

The Book of Proverbs

Book of the Hebrew Bible · wisdom literature traditionally ascribed to King Solomon

The Book of Proverbs is a collection of Hebrew wisdom sayings in the Old Testament, traditionally attributed to King Solomon though compiled over centuries. Proverbs 16:18 — “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” in the 1611 King James Version — is the verse the popular one-liner is drawn from. The book’s terse, parallel couplets lend themselves to exactly this kind of shortening in everyday speech.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

The Holy Bible, King James Version (London, 1611), Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” The popular “pride comes before a fall” is a later anonymous paraphrase.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Pride comes before a fall’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/pride-comes-before-a-fall/

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