miss is as good as a mile

Failing or losing by a small margin is just as bad as failing or losing by a large margin. She felt that not achieving a perfect grade point average was as bad as failing all of her classes because, according to her, a miss is as good as a mile.

Prov. Almost having done something is the same as not having done it at all, since in both cases the thing does not get done. We only missed the train by one minute? Well, a miss is as good as a mile.

Falling short by a small amount is as bad as falling short by a great deal. This condensation of the older proverb, “An inch of a miss is as good (or bad) as a mile (or ell) of a miss,” known in the sixteenth century, is believed to have originated with Sir Walter Scott, who wrote in his Journal (Dec. 3, 1825), “He was very near being a poet—but a miss is as good as a mile, and he always fell short of the mark.”