THOMAS FULLER QUOTES Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) British scholar and preacher

A proverb is much matter decocted into few words.

THOMAS FULLER, The History of the Worthies of England

It is always darkest just before the day dawneth.

THOMAS FULLER, Pisgah Sight

It is a silly game where nobody wins.

THOMAS FULLER, Gnomologia

Bad excuses are worse than none.

Light, God's eldest daughter, is a principal beauty in a building: yet it shines not alike from all parts of heaven.

THOMAS FULLER, The Holy State and the Profane State

To clothe low-creeping matter with high-flown language is not fine fancy but flat foolery; it rather loads than raises a wren, to fasten the feathers of an ostrich to her wings.

THOMAS FULLER, The Holy State and the Profane State

Wine hath drowned more men than the sea.

THOMAS FULLER, Gnomologia

If you command wisely, you'll be obeyed cheerfully.

THOMAS FULLER, Gnomologia

But as for logic, that is the armory of reason, furnished with all offensive and defensive weapons.

THOMAS FULLER, The Holy State and the Profane State

Wine is a Turn-coat; first a friend, and then an enemy.

THOMAS FULLER, Gnomologia

Know most of the rooms of thy native country before thou goest over the threshold thereof.

THOMAS FULLER, The Holy State and the Profane State

Suspiciousness is as great an enemy to wisdom as too much credulity.

THOMAS FULLER, The History of the Holy War

Let thy child's first lesson be obedience, and the second may be what thou wilt.

THOMAS FULLER, An Introduction to Prudence

He that falls into sin is a man; that grieves at it, is a saint; that boasteth of it, is a devil.

THOMAS FULLER, The Holy State and the Profane State

A fool's paradise is a wise man's hell.

THOMAS FULLER, The Holy State and the Profane State

Necessity dispenseth with decorum.

THOMAS FULLER, Gnomologia

Where jealousy is the jailer, many break the prison, it opening more ways to wickedness than it stoppeth; so that where it findeth one, it maketh ten dishonest.

THOMAS FULLER, The Holy State and the Profane State

'Tis money that begets money.

THOMAS FULLER, Gnomologia

Take the advice of a faithful friend, and submit thy inventions to his censure.

THOMAS FULLER, The Holy State and the Profane State

Ingratitude is the abridgment of all baseness--a fault never found unattended with other viciousness.

THOMAS FULLER, The Church History of Britain

Generosity, wrong placed, becometh a vice; a princely mind will impoverish a private family.

THOMAS FULLER, Introductio Ad Prudentium

Haste and rashness are storms and tempest, breaking and wreaking business; but nimbleness is a full, fair wind, blowing it with speed to the haven.

THOMAS FULLER, attributed, Day's Collacon

He declares himself guilty who justifies himself before accusation.

THOMAS FULLER, Gnomologia

Light (God's eldest daughter!).

THOMAS FULLER, The Holy State and the Profane State

It is a silly conceit, that men without languages are often without understanding; it is apparent in all ages, that some such have been even prodigies for ability; for it is not to be believed that wisdom speaks only to her disciples in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.

THOMAS FULLER, attributed, Day's Collacon