It gathers strength as it goes.

Explanation

Applied to custom, precedent, and reputation — a principle or practice gains authority through continued and consistent observance over time.

Where this applies

• A local custom of fishing rights along a river grows stronger with each generation that observes it, until it becomes legally indistinguishable from an established right.
• A precedent cited with approval by courts in ten successive cases gains such authority that it is treated as settled law, gathering force through consistent application.
• A family's continuous, open use of a neighbor's path for fifty years strengthens the prescriptive easement claim with each passing decade, as the practice gathers authority as it goes.

See also

• 1.3.1 Custom is the best interpreter of the law.