make all the difference

Verb

 * 1)  To be a crucial or deciding factor; to have a very significant effect (often a positive one).
 * 2) * 1734,, Essays Moral and Philosophical, London: J. Osborn & T. Longman, Part I, Chapter 12, p. 100,
 * To assert the Superiority of the Human Spirit above that of other Animals upon this earth, has been the endeavour of many Persons, who  have made their System more coherent than those who have endeavour’d to put Men and Beasts upon a level. Some of this last Party indeed acknowledge the advantage that Mankind have from the Frame of the Body and its Organs, which they pretend makes all the difference.
 * To assert the Superiority of the Human Spirit above that of other Animals upon this earth, has been the endeavour of many Persons, who  have made their System more coherent than those who have endeavour’d to put Men and Beasts upon a level. Some of this last Party indeed acknowledge the advantage that Mankind have from the Frame of the Body and its Organs, which they pretend makes all the difference.