C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Thomas Fuller
A father who whipped his son for swearing and swore at him while he whipped him, did more harm by his example than good by his correction.
A fool and a wise man are alike both in the starting-place—their birth, and at the post—their death; only they differ in the race of their lives.
A good schoolmaster minces his precepts for children to swallow, hanging clogs on the nimbleness of his own soul, that his scholars may go along with him.
A guilty conscience is like a whirlpool, drawing in all to itself which would otherwise pass by.
A lazy hand is no argument of a contented heart.
A name is a kind of face whereby one is known; wherefore taking a false name is a kind of visard whereby men disguise themselves.
A tender conscience is a stronger obligation than a prison.
A wounded conscience is able to un-paradise paradise itself.
A wounded conscience is often inflicted as a punishment for lack of true repentance; great is the difference betwixt a man’s being frightened at and humbled for his sins.
All the while thou livest ill, thou hast the trouble, distraction, inconveniences of life, but not the sweets and true use of it.
An ounce of cheerfulness is worth a pound of sadness to serve God with.
Anger is one of the sinews of the soul.
As the sword of the best-tempered metal is most flexible, so the truly generous are most pliant and courteous in their behavior to their inferiors.
Associate with men of judgment, for judgment is found in conversation, and we make another man’s judgment ours by frequenting his company.
Be fearful only of thyself, and stand in awe of none more than of thine own conscience. There is a Cato in every man, a severe censor of his manners; and he that reverences this judge will seldom do anything he need repent of.
Be not too familiar with thy servants; at first it may beget love, but in the end ’twill breed contempt.
Beard was never the true standard of brains.
Books, like friends, should be few, and well chosen.
Thou mayst as well expect to grow strong by always eating as wiser by always reading. Too much overcharges nature, and turns more into disease than nourishment. ’Tis thought and digestion which makes books serviceable, and gives health and vigor to the mind.
But our captain counts the image of God, nevertheless, His image—cut in ebony as if done in ivory; and in the blackest Moors he sees the representation of the King of heaven.
Cheaters must get some credit before they can cozen, and all falsehood, if not founded in some truth, would not be fixed in any belief.
Choose such pleasures as recreate much and cost little.
Christians are called saints, for their holiness; believers, for their faith; brethren, for their love; disciples, for their knowledge.
Conceit not so high a notion of any as to be bashful and impotent in their presence.
Contentment consisteth not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire.
Curiosity is a kernel of the forbidden fruit, which still sticketh in the throat of a natural man, sometimes to the danger of his choking.
Deceive not thyself by over-expecting happiness in the marriage state. Look not therein for contentment greater than God will give, or a creature in this world can receive, namely, to be free from all inconveniences. Marriage is not, like the hill of Olympus, wholly clear without clouds.
Deformity is either natural, voluntary or adventitious, being either caused by God’s unseen Providence (by men nicknamed chance), or by men’s cruelty.
Drawing near her death, she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven, and her soul saw a glimpse of happiness through the chinks of her sickness-broken body.
Ejaculations are short prayers darted up to God on emergent occasions.
Fame is the echo of actions, resounding them to the world, save that the echo repeats only the last part; but fame relates all, and often more than all.
Fame may be compared to a scold; the best way to silence her is to let her alone, and she will at last be out of breath in blowing her own trumpet.
Fame sometimes hath created something of nothing.
Fancy runs most furiously when a guilty conscience drives it.
First get an absolute conquest over thyself, and then thou wilt easily govern thy wife.
Generally nature hangs out a sign of simplicity in the face of a fool.
Generosity, wrong placed, becometh a vice; a princely mind will undo a private family.
Give freely to him that deserveth well, and asketh nothing: and that is a way of giving to thyself.
Go not to a covetous old man with any request too soon in the morning, before he hath taken in that day’s prey; for his covetousness is up before him, and he before thee, and he is in ill-humor; but stay till the afternoon, till he be satiated upon some borrower.
Good counsels observed are chains to grace, which neglected, prove halters to strange undutiful children.
Grant that I may never rack a Scripture simile beyond the true intent thereof, lest, instead of sucking milk, I squeeze blood out of it.
Gravity is the ballast of the soul, which keeps the mind steady.
Harmless mirth is the best cordial against the consumption of the spirit; wherefore jesting is not unlawful, if it trespasseth not in quantity, quality or season.
Haste and rashness are storms and tempests, breaking and wrecking business; but nimbleness is a full, fair wind, blowing it with speed to haven.
He had a prince’s mind imprisoned in a poor man’s purse.
He is a good time-server that improves the present for God’s glory and his own salvation.
He knows little who will tell his wife all he knows.
He lives long that lives well, and time misspent is not lived, but lost. Besides, God is better than His promise, if He takes from him a long lease, and gives him a freehold of greater value.
He shall be immortal who liveth till he be stoned by one without fault.
He that blushes not at his crime, but adds shamelessness to shame, hath nothing left to restore him to virtue.
He that falls into sin is a man, that grieves at it is a saint, that boasteth of it is a devil; yet some glory in that shame, counting the stains of sin the best complexion of their souls.
He that is proud of the rustling of his silks, like a madman, laughs at the rattling of his fetters; for, indeed, clothes ought to be our remembrancers of our lost innocency.
He that sips of many arts drinks of none.
He that will lose his friend for a jest deserves to die a beggar by the bargain. Such let thy jests be, that they may not grind the credit of thy friend; and make not jests so long till thou becomest one.
History maketh a young man to be old, without either wrinkles or grey hairs, privileging him with the experience of age, without either the infirmities or inconveniences thereof.
Hold not conference, debate, or reasoning with any lust; ’tis but a preparatory for thy admission of it. The way is at the very first flatly to deny it.
Hope not for impossibilities.
How weak a thing is gentility, if it wants virtue.
If Satan doth fetter us, ’tis indifferent to him whether it be by a cable or by hair; nay, perhaps the smallest sins are his greatest stratagems.
If the master takes no account of his servants, they will make small account of him, and care not what they spend, who are never brought to an audit.
If the wicked flourish and thou suffer, be not discouraged. They are fatted for destruction; thou are dieted for health.
If thou art a master, be sometimes blind; if a servant, sometimes deaf.
If thou hast a loitering servant, send him of thy errand just before his dinner.
If thou wouldest please the ladies, thou must endeavor to make them pleased with themselves.
If thou wouldst be borne with bear with others.
If thou wouldst be informed what God has written concerning thee in Heaven look into thine own bosom, and see what graces He hath there wrought in thee.
If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.
In extemporary prayer, what men most admire God least regardeth.
Ingratitude is the abridgment of all baseness,—a fault never found unattended with other viciousness.
Inquisitiveness or curiosity is a kernel of the forbidden fruit, which still sticketh in the throat of a natural man, and sometimes to the danger of his choking.
It is best to be with those in time that we hope to be with in eternity.
It is much better to have your gold in the hand than in the heart.
It is the treasure-house of the mind, wherein the monuments thereof are kept and preserved.
It is thought and digestion which makes books serviceable, and gives health and vigor to the mind.
It is to be feared that they who marry where they do not love will love where they do not marry.
It was said of one who preached very well and lived very ill, “that when he was out of the pulpit it was pity he should ever go into it; and when he was in the pulpit, it was pity he should ever come out of it.”
Jars concealed are half reconciled; ’tis a double task, to stop the breach at home and men’s mouths abroad. To this end, a good husband never publicly reproves his wife. An open reproof puts her to do penance before all that are present; after which, many study rather revenge than reformation.
Judge of thine improvement, not by what thou speakest or writest, but by the firmness of thy mind, and the government of thy passions and affections.
Know most of the rooms of thy native country before thou goest over the threshold thereof.
Learn to hold thy tongue. Five words cost Zacharias forty weeks’ silence.
Learning hath gained most by those books by which printers have lost.
Leave not off praying to God: for either praying will make thee leave off sinning; or continuing in sin will make thee desist from praying.
Let friendship creep gently to a height; if it rush to it, it may soon run itself out of breath.
Let men say what they will; according to the experience I have learned, I require in married women the economical virtue above all other virtues.
Light (God’s eldest daughter!).
Logic is the armory of reason.
Lose not thine own for want of asking for it; ’twill get thee no thanks.
Make no vows to perform this or that; it shows no great strength, and makes thee ride behind thyself.
Make not a bosom friend of a melancholy soul; he’ll be sure to aggravate thy adversity and lessen thy prosperity. He goes always heavily loaded, and thou must bear half. He is never in a good humor, and may easily get into a bad one, and fall out with thee.
Make not thy friends too cheap to thee, nor thyself to thy friend.
Many hope that the tree will be felled who hope to gather chips by the fall.
Marriage is not, like the hill of Olympus, wholly clear, without clouds.
Measure not men by Sundays, without regarding what they do all the week after.
Memory, like a purse, if it be overfull that it cannot shut, all will drop out of it; take heed of a gluttonous curiosity to feed on many things, lest the greediness of the appetite of thy memory spoil the digestion thereof.
Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.
Most marvellous and enviable is that fecundity of fancy which can adorn whatever it touches, which can invest naked fact and dry reasoning with unlooked-for beauty, make flowerets bloom even on the brow of the precipice, and, when nothing better can be had, can turn the very substance of rock itself into moss and lichens. This faculty is incomparably the most important for the vivid and attractive exhibition of truth, to the minds of men.
Music is nothing else but wild sounds civilized into time and tune.
Nature hath appointed the twilight as a bridge to pass us out of day into night.
Neither hear nor tell secrets.
No better armor against the darts of death than to be busied in God’s service.
No man can be stark naught at once. Let us stop the progress of sin in our soul at the first stage, for the farther it goes the faster it will increase.
No time to break jests when the heartstrings are about to be broken.
Oh the difference of divers men in the tenderness of their consciences! Some are scarcely touched with a wound, while others are wounded with a touch therein.
One month in the school of affliction will teach thee more than the great precepts of Aristotle in seven years; for thou canst never judge rightly of human affairs, unless thou hast first felt the blows, and found out the deceits of fortune.
Our eyes when gazing on sinful objects are out of their calling and God’s keeping,
Place not thy amendment only in increasing thy devotion, but in bettering thy life. This is the damning hypocrisy of this age; that it slights all good morality, and spends its zeal in matters of ceremony, and a form of godliness without the power of it.
Poetry is music in words, and music is poetry in sound: both excellent sauce, but they have lived and died poor, that made them their meat.
Praise not people to their faces, to the end that they may pay thee in the same coin. This is so thin a cobweb that it may with little difficulty be seen through; it is rarely strong enough to catch flies of any considerable magnitude.
Purchase no friends by gifts; when thou ceasest to give such will cease to love.
Rashness is the fruitful but unhappy parent of misfortune.
Reasons are the pillars of the fabric of a sermon, but similitudes are the windows which give the best light. The faithful minister avoids such stories whose mention may suggest bad thoughts to the auditors, and will not use a light comparison to make thereof a grave application, for fear lest his poison go further than his antidote.
Rebellion must be managed with many swords; treason to his prince’s person may be with one knife.
Reward a good servant well; and rather get quit of a bad one than disquiet thyself with him.
Satan, as a master, is bad; his work much worse; and his wages worst of all.
Scoff not at the natural defects of any which are not in their power to amend. Oh, it is cruel to beat a cripple with his own crutches.
She commandeth her husband, in any equal matter, by constant obeying him.
Silence gives consent.
Slight small injuries, and they’ll become none at all.
So a good prayer, though often used, is still fresh and fair in the ears and eyes of heaven.
Some books are only cursorily to be tasted of.
Spill not the morning (the quintessence of the day) in recreation, for sleep itself is recreation. Add not, therefore, sauce to sauces.
Such is the sociableness of music, it conforms itself to all companies, both in mirth and mourning; complying to improve that passion with which it finds the auditors most affected.
Surely that preaching which comes from the soul most works on the soul.
Suspicion is as great an enemy to wisdom as too much credulity.
Take the advice of a faithful friend, and submit thy inventions to his censure.
The blush is nature’s alarm at the approach of sin, and her testimony to the dignity of virtue.
The frost is God’s plough, which He drives through every inch of ground in the world, opening each clod, and pulverizing the whole.
The good widow’s sorrow is no storm, but a still rain; commonly it comes to pass that that grief is quickly emptied that streameth out at so large a vent, whilst their tears that but drop will hold running a long time.
The good wife is none of our dainty dames, who love to appear in a variety of suits every day new; as if a good gown, like a stratagem in war, were to be used but once. But bur good wife sets up a sail according to the keel of her husband’s estate; and if of high parentage, she doth not so remember what she was by birth, that she forgets what she is by match.
The greatest man living may stand in need of the meanest, as much as the meanest does of him.
The image of God cut in ebony.
The pains we take in books or arts which treat of things remote from the necessaries of life is a busy idleness.
The pyramids, doting with age, have forgotten the names of their founders.
The schoolmaster deserves to be beaten himself who beats nature in a boy for a fault.
The soldier at the same time may shoot out his prayer to God, and aim his pistol at his enemy, the one better hitting the mark for the other.
The true gentleman is extracted from ancient and worshipful parentage. When a pepin is planted on a pepin-stock, the fruit growing thence is called a renate, a most delicious apple, as both by sire and dame well descended. Thus his blood must needs be well purified who is genteelly born on both sides.
The willow is a sad tree, whereof such who have lost their love make their mourning garlands, and we know what exiles hung up their harps upon such doleful supporters. The twigs are physic to drive out the folly of children.
There are heads sometimes so little, that there is no room for wit, sometimes so long that there is no wit for so much room.
There is a Spanish proverb, that a lapidary who would grow rich must buy of those who go to be executed, as not caring how cheap they sell; and sell to those who go to be married, as not caring how dear they buy.
They that marry ancient people merely in expectation to bury them, hang themselves in hope that one will come and cut the halter.
This comforts me, that the most weather-beaten vessel cannot properly be seized on for a wreck which hath any quick cattle remaining therein. My spirits are not as yet forfeited to despair, having one lively spark of hope in my heart because God is even where He was before.
This I quarreled at, that he went far from his text to come close to me, and so was faulty himself in telling me of my faults.
Those passionate persons who carry their heart in their mouth are rather to be pitied than feared; their threatenings serving no other purpose than to forearm him that is threatened.
Those who are surly and imperious to their inferiors are generally humble, flattering, and cringing to their superiors.
Thou mayest as well expect to grow stronger by always eating, as wiser by always reading. Too much overcharges nature, and turns more into disease than nourishment.
Thou mayst be more prodigal of praise when thou writest a letter than when thou speakest in presence.
Thou oughtest to be nice, even to superstition, in keeping thy promises; and therefore thou shouldst be equally cautious in making them.
Though “the words of the wise be as nails fastened by the masters of the assemblies,” yet sure their examples are the hammer to drive them in to take the deeper hold. A father that whipped his son for swearing, and swore himself whilst he whipped him, did more harm by his example than good by his correction.
Though bachelors be the strongest stakes, married men are the best binders in the hedge of the commonwealth.
To divert at any time a troublesome fancy, run to thy books; they presently fix thee to them, and driven the other out of thy thoughts. They always receive thee with the same kindness.
To smell a fresh turf of earth is wholesome for the body; no less are thoughts of mortality cordial to the soul. “Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.”
Tombs are the clothes of the dead: a grave is but a plain suit, and a rich monument is one embroidered.
Trust not in him that seems a saint.
Try to be happy in this present moment, and put not off being so to a time to come,—as though that time should be of another make from this, which has already come and is ours.
Tyrants commonly cut off the stairs by which they climb up unto their thrones***for fear that, if they still be left standing, others will get up the same way.
Wanton jests make fools laugh, and wise men frown.
We make others’ judgment our own by frequenting their society.
When I cannot be forced, I am fooled out of my integrity. He cannot constrain if I do not consent. If I do but keep possession, all the posse of hell cannot violently eject me; but I cowardly surrender to his summons. Thus there needs no more to be my undoing but myself.
When men come with nets in their ears, it is good for the preacher to have neither fish nor fowl in his tongue. But blessed be God, now we need not lie at so close a guard.
When our hopes break, let our patience hold.
When thou makest presents, let them be of such things as will last long; to the end they may be in some sort immortal, and may frequently refresh the memory of the receiver.
When worthy men fall out, only one of them may be faulty at the first; but if strife continue long, commonly both become guilty.