The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.
In Chinese, "Da shi hua xiao, xiao shi hua wu," meaning "Great things become (can be reduced to) small things, small things become (can be reduced to) nothing."
Another Chinese one is "Big fish eat little fish, little fish eat shrimp, shrimp eat <insert favorite slang term for 'feces' here>"
This is maybe roughly analogous to "Feces rolls down hill." I think there's a better one, but it eludes me at the moment. "The rich get richer while the poor get poorer?"
There's a German one that goes "Der Krug geht so lange zur quelle bis er bricht," meaning "The watering jug goes so many times to the well before it breaks." (Sometimes it's "zer wasser," meaning to the water.) German fellow told me an amusing joke that goes with this, "Der Student geht so lange zum Mensa bis er bricht," meaning "The student goes so many times to the cafeteria before he tosses his cookies." This is a play on the word brechen (bricht) meaning 'to break' and 'erbrechen,' 'to vomit.'
I'm sure there's an English verion. I heard of a french version once, but I don't remember how it went.
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