Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz

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.

Short biography of Thomas Fuller >>

Thomas Fuller
“He that plants trees”

Illustrated Quote - Large (800 x 400 px)

Thomas Fuller quote He that plants trees

Click here or image for medium 500 x 250px version

(source)

Thumbnail of tree shading a person sitting on a picnic table in a park.

(source)

“He that plants trees, loves others besides himself.”

— Thomas Fuller

Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732).

More Thomas Fuller quotes on science >>

This quote is as written in Gnomologia (1732), a compilation of 6496 adagies and proverbs that Thomas Fuller had collected from various sources. In its introduction, Fuller wrote, “it hath been my constant Custom to note down and record whatever I thought of myself, or receiv’d from Men, or Books worth preserving.” The publication did not give any sources, or indicate any apothegms or maxims that were his original thoughts. So the quote might be original by Fuller, or not. It may be more likely be his wording of a proverb or sentiment he heard or found elsewhere.

The Gnomologia seems to be the first appearance of the quote with this particular wording and sentiment. In the centuries that followed, various compilations of proverbs have included it.

However, note that the quote is attributed to Hans Sloane in the 1884 collection Day's Collacon: an Encyclopaedia of Prose Quotations. Sloane (1660-1753), an avid botanic collector, was also a physician, and a contemporary of Fuller (1654-1734). It remains an open question whether Sloan learned the quote from Fuller's book (1732), or if Fuller heard Sloan use it. (Or, if the attribution was an editor's error.) Day’s Collacon includes several quotes with similar sentiments.

Though it appears only relatively recently in printed works so far found by Webmaster, compare this quote circulating, called a Greek proverb:

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

Text by Webmaster with quote from No. 2248 in Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings (1732), 91. (source)

See also:

Science Quotes by Thomas Fuller.
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)

Nature bears long with those who wrong her. She is patient under abuse. But when abuse has gone too far, when the time of reckoning finally comes, she is equally slow to be appeased and to turn away her wrath. (1882) -- Nathaniel Egleston, who was writing then about deforestation, but speaks equally well about the danger of climate change today.

Carl Sagan: 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) ...(more by Sagan)

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

Richard Feynman: It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. ...(more by Feynman)