> as lemmas

a1450 Pater Noster Richard Ermyte (Westm. Sch. 3) (1967) 50 Euer þe hiȝer he clymbeþ, & for vnwarschip his feet hym fayle, þe sarrer & þe lower nedely he falliþ.

a1500 (c1340) R. Rolle Psalter (Univ. Oxf. 64) (1884) xxxvi. 21 (MED) Swa ill men, the heghere thai klymbe in honurs and riches, the soner thai dye.

?1532 T. Paynell tr. Erasmus De Contemptu Mundi v. sig. C^v Yet the hygher thou clymmest the sorer is thy fall So saythe the satyryan mayster Iuuenall.

1577 A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Serm. Epist. Ephesians iii. f. 122 The hygher that they clymb, the more horrible shall their fall bee.

1613 Bp. W. Cowper Holy Alphabet 269 They haue sometime in their pride, high imaginations; as if with the builders of Babel, they would mount vp into heauen: but the higher they mount, the lower they fall.

1659 N. Hardy First Epist. John: 2nd Pt. (ii. 15-16) xx. 404 The higher he climbeth over others heads, the sooner he breaketh his own neck.

1745 J. Kirkby Capacity & Extent Human Understanding 48 The higher Men climb, still the greater Danger is in their Fall.

1791 T. Priestley Crown of Eternal Glory: Funeral Serm. 26 Many are seized with the disorder of Haman; the higher they climb, the lower they fall.

1885 Spectator 7 Mar. 309/1 The higher you are the worse you fall.

1888 F. N. Peloubet & M. A. Peloubet Select Notes: Comm. on Internat. Lessons for 1889 337 The best worldly gifts of God..bring with them peculiar temptations. The higher one climbs the farther it is possible for him to fall.

1917 G. B. Lancaster Fool Divine 325 She was not yet wise enough to know that the higher a man climbs the greater his fall and the more it hurts him.

1987 Times 3 Mar. 34/7 There is no escape from scrutiny when you are champion. The higher you climb the harder you fall.

2002 Slate Mag. (Nexis) 21 June There was a time when the powerful dreaded failure; the belief was that the higher one climbed, the further one had to fall.