Daily Inspiration Quote by Thomas Fuller

A little pastoral brutality hides inside this line: relief, Fuller insists, is often a one-time cost paid to escape a slow, endless tax. "Better a tooth out" is not just medieval dentistry; it's a moral stance against the kind of suffering we normalize because it's familiar. The aching tooth becomes a parable for habits, grudges, temptations, or relationships that don't ruin you all at once, just steadily, faithfully, day after day.

As a 17th-century clergyman, Fuller is writing for people trained to read the body as an allegory. Pain isn't random; it's instruction. The bite of the proverb is that it refuses sentimental patience. There's a piety in endurance, yes, but Fuller is suspicious of endurance that turns into avoidance. Pulling the tooth is decisive, slightly violent, and socially legible: everyone understands the moment you choose short-term agony to end long-term misery. That makes the advice sticky. It frames action as courage and delay as cowardice, without needing to sermonize.

The context matters: this is a period of civil upheaval and religious argument in England, when "cutting off" a corrupting influence could sound like political counsel as much as personal hygiene. The subtext is a warning about half-measures. Some problems can't be managed; they have to be removed. Fuller's genius is packaging that severity as common sense, letting a homely image smuggle in a hard ethic of choice.