Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654 – 1734)
English physician, writer and adage collector.
A Friend to all, is a Friend to none.
Who draws his Sword against his Prince, must throw away the Scabbard.
No Smoak without some Fire.
Speak the Truth, and shame the Devil.
He's a Slave, that cannot command himself.
The King's Cheese goes half away in Pareings.
Men seek less to be instructed than applauded.
To talk without thinking is to shoot without aiming.
Too much Familiarity breeds Contempt.
One may as much miss the Mark, by aiming too high, as too low.
You pour Water into a Sieve.
Assist the afflicted with something real, if thou canst ; As for Tears they are but Water, what good can they do?
Drive away and never endure Tale-bearers : Whoever entertains thee with the Faults of others, designs to serve thee in the same Kind.
Good Reader, I suspect I may have written some Things twice ; if not the same in Words, yet in Sense, which I desire you to pass by favourably ; forasmuch as you may well think, it was as difficult and dull a Thing for me, in so great a Number of independent Sentences, to find out the Repetitions, as it would be in a vast Heap of different Coins and Medals, confusedly thrown together, to pick out here and there one that bore the same and like Inscription, with some other among them. Besides the Pains, such a Search would cost me more Time, than I can afford it ; for my Glass of Life running now low, I must not suffer one Sand to fall in waste, nor spend one Minute in picking of Straws. And moreover, my aged Eyes being grown weak and dim, I fear they will become quite dark, by much perusing and poring ; or at least so far, so as to render me unable to perfect several Papers now lying by me, which I would willingly make a Present of to you.
A Mouse in Time may shear a Cable asunder.
No Resolutions of Repentance hereafter can be sincere.
Suffer a Friend to reprove thee, and thank him heartily for it : 'Tis a Happiness for a Man that he can be reproved when he does amiss, and be recalled when he runs wrong. Princes are deprived of that Benefit : for they converse familiarly but with very few Persons, and those make it their only Business to humour them.
Poor men seek meat for their Stomach ; rich Men Stomach for their Meat.
Not to oversee Workmen, is to leave them your Purse open.
Zeal is by no Means the same with Fury and Rage.