TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “Politics is more difficult than physics.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index F > Thomas Fuller Quotes

Thumbnail of Thomas Fuller (source)
Thomas Fuller
(24 Jun 1654 - 17 Sep 1734)

English physician whose practice was in Sevenoaks, Kent. His Pharmacopoiea of a thousand prescriptions for medicines appeared in at least 12 editions. He also published Gnomologia in which he collected 6496 adagies and proverbs.


Science Quotes by Thomas Fuller (21 quotes)

Engraving of Thomas Fuller, head and shoulders - colorization © todayinsci.com
Thomas Fuller
colorization © todayinsci (Terms of Use) (source)

Please respect the colorization artist’s wishes and do not copy this image for ONLINE use anywhere else.

Thank you.

For offline use, click Terms of Use tab on top menu.


A tree is known better by its Fruit, than its Leaves.
— Thomas Fuller
No. 444 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732), 17. Compare with No. 4280, “Such as the Tree, such is the Fruit”, p.183.
Science quotes on:  |  Fruit (108)  |  Identification (20)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Species (435)  |  Tree (269)

All things are difficult before they are easy.
— Thomas Fuller
No. 560 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Difficult (263)  |  Easy (213)  |  Thing (1914)

All things are easy, that are done willingly.
— Thomas Fuller
No. 561 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Easy (213)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Willingly (2)  |  Work (1402)

All things help, quoth the Wren, when he piss’d in the Sea.
— Thomas Fuller
No. 563 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732), 21. [Note: this earthy wisdom is misinformed; in general, birds do not have a urinary bladder and excrete kidney waste as uric acid along with faeces as a semisolid waste. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Help (116)  |  Ornithology (21)  |  Piss (3)  |  Sea (326)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Urine (18)  |  Wren (3)

He that plants trees, loves others besides himself.
— Thomas Fuller
No. 2248 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732), 91.
Science quotes on:  |  Himself (461)  |  Love (328)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plant (320)  |  Tree (269)

He who cures a disease may be the skillfullest, but he who prevents it is the safest physician.
— Thomas Fuller
In Practical Spelling: A Text Book For Use in Commercial Schools (1902), 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Cure (124)  |  Disease (340)  |  Physician (284)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Prevention (37)  |  Safest (7)  |  Skill (116)

He who plants a Walnut-Tree, expects not to eat of the fruit.
— Thomas Fuller
No. 2401 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732), 99.
Science quotes on:  |  Eat (108)  |  Eating (46)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Plant (320)  |  Tree (269)

If thou hast knowledge, let others light their candle at thine.
— Thomas Fuller
In Introductio ad Prudentiam: or, Directions, Counsels, and Cautions, Tending to Prudent Management of Affairs in Common Life (1727), Part II, 2, Moral No. 1784. Often seen incorrectly attributed to Sarah Margaret Fuller or Winston Churchill, slightly reworded, for example, as “If you have knowledge, let others light their candles with it.”
Science quotes on:  |  Candle (32)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Let (64)  |  Light (635)  |  Other (2233)

Nature is beyond all teaching.
— Thomas Fuller
No. 3505 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732), 91.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Teaching (190)

Nature takes as much Pains in the Womb for the forming of a Beggar as an Emperor.
— Thomas Fuller
No. 3507 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732), 91.
Science quotes on:  |  Beggar (5)  |  Emperor (6)  |  Formation (100)  |  Forming (42)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Pain (144)  |  Womb (25)

Nothing is easy to the unwilling.
— Thomas Fuller
No. 3663 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732), 156.
Science quotes on:  |  Easy (213)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Unwilling (9)

Of the Passive Principle, and Material Cause of the Small Pox ... Nature, in the first compounding and forming of us, hath laid into the Substance and Constitution of each something equivalent to Ovula, of various distinct Kinds, productive of all the contagious, venomous Fevers, we can possibly have as long as we live.
— Thomas Fuller
Exanthematologia: Or, An Attempt to Give a Rational Account of Eruptive Fevers, Especially of the Measles and SmallPox (1730), Part II, 'Of the Small-Pox', 175. In Ludvig Hektoen, 'Thomas Fuller 1654-1734: Country Physician and Pioneer Exponent of Specificness in Infection and Immunity', read to the Society (8 Nov 1921), published in Bulletin of the Society of Medical History of Chicago (Mar 1922), 2, 329, or in reprint form, p. 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Disease (340)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Fever (34)  |  First (1302)  |  Forming (42)  |  Germ (54)  |  Kind (564)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Material (366)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Principle (530)  |  Productive (37)  |  Small (489)  |  Smallpox (14)  |  Something (718)  |  Substance (253)  |  Various (205)

Plant the Crab-Tree where you will, it will never bear Pippins.
— Thomas Fuller
No. 3880 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732), 165.
Science quotes on:  |  Apple (46)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Plant (320)  |  Species (435)

Such as the Tree, such is the Fruit.
— Thomas Fuller
No. 4280 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732), 183. Compare with No. 2248, “A tree is known better by its Fruit, than its Leaves”, on p.91.
Science quotes on:  |  Fruit (108)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Identification (20)  |  Species (435)  |  Tree (269)

The anatomy of a little child, representing all parts thereof, is accounted a greater rarity than the skeleton of a man in full stature.
— Thomas Fuller
In The Church History of Britain (1842), Vol. 1, 165. Fuller’s context was to compare being studious in antiquity with after-ages when perfected.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Adult (24)  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Child (333)  |  Greater (288)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Rare (94)  |  Rarity (11)  |  Represent (157)  |  Skeleton (25)

The frost is God’s plough which he drives through every inch of ground in the world, opening each clod, and pulverizing the whole.
— Thomas Fuller
As quoted in Henry Southgate (ed.), Many Thoughts of Many Minds (1862), 237.
Science quotes on:  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Clod (3)  |  Drive (61)  |  Frost (15)  |  God (776)  |  Ground (222)  |  Meteorology (36)  |  Open (277)  |  Plough (15)  |  Pulverize (3)  |  Soil Science (4)  |  Through (846)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

The Pestilence can never breed the Small-Pox, nor the Small-Pox the Measles, nor they the Crystals or Chicken-Pox, any more than an Hen can breed a Duck, a Wolf a Sheep, or a Thistle Figs; and consequently, one Sort cannot be a Preservative against any other Sort.
— Thomas Fuller
In Ludvig Hektoen, 'Thomas Fuller 1654-1734: country physician and pioneer exponent of specificness in infection and immunity', Bulletin of the Society of Medical History of Chicago (Mar 1922), 2, 321. In the reprint of the paper alone, the quote is on page 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Breed (26)  |  Consequently (5)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Duck (3)  |  Hen (9)  |  Measles (4)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pestilence (14)  |  Sheep (13)  |  Small (489)  |  Smallpox (14)  |  Sort (50)  |  Thistle (5)  |  Wolf (11)

There are more old Drunkards than old Physicians.
— Thomas Fuller
No. 4858 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732), 210. Later printed by Benjamin Franklin as, “There’s more old Drunkards than old Doctors,” in Poor Richard’s Almanack (1736). The quote appears centuries earlier by François Rabelais (1596), as translated to English: “A hundred devils leap into my body, if there be not more old drunkards than old physicians.” See the François Rabelais quotes page on this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Drunkard (8)  |  Old (499)  |  Physician (284)

We never know the Worth of Water till the Well is Dry.
— Thomas Fuller
Proverb collected by Fuller, No. 5451 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs: Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British (1732), 237. Compare with Benjamin Franklin, published later, “When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water”, in Poor Richard’s Almanac (1757, 1900), 23.
Science quotes on:  |  Dry (65)  |  Know (1538)  |  Never (1089)  |  Water (503)  |  Worth (172)

We perfectly know what is Good, and what is Evil; and may be as certain in Morals as in Mathematics.
— Thomas Fuller
No. 5452 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732), 238.
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Evil (122)  |  Good (906)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Moral (203)  |  Perfect (223)

What the Eye sees, need not to be guessed at.
— Thomas Fuller
No. 5518 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732), 241.
Science quotes on:  |  Eye (440)  |  Guess (67)  |  Proof (304)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  See (1094)


See also:
  • 24 Jun - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Fuller's birth.
  • Thomas Fuller - context of quote “He that plants trees” - Medium image (500 x 250 px)
  • Thomas Fuller - context of quote “He that plants trees” - Large image (800 x 400 px)

Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Thank you for sharing.
- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


by Ian Ellis
who invites your feedback
Thank you for sharing.
Today in Science History
Sign up for Newsletter
with quiz, quotes and more.