Daily Inspiration Quote by Thomas Fuller

The line draws a bright line between panic and penitence. Being frightened at sin is a reflex of self-preservation: the imagination runs to exposure, punishment, loss of status, hell. The self remains at the center, calculating how to escape consequences. Fear can make a person pause, lie low, or perform hurried rituals of repair, but it rarely changes the heart. It breeds secrecy, denial, and a hope that the storm will pass.

Being humbled for sin shifts the center. Pride collapses, not because of looming penalties, but because the wrong is seen truly as wrong. The offender accepts the verdict without protest, names the harm without excuse, and seeks reconciliation rather than mere relief. Humility opens the door to confession, restitution, and gratitude for mercy. It is closer to the sorrow that mends relationships than to the dread that keeps up appearances.

Thomas Fuller, a 17th-century Anglican divine writing amid civil strife and sharp religious debates, often turned moral insights into memorable aphorisms. His language here recalls classical Christian distinctions between servile fear and filial repentance, and echoes the biblical contrast between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow that leads to change. He is not minimizing fear altogether; fear can restrain. But he is ranking motives, insisting that only humility can reform.

The point cuts across centuries. Public life is crowded with fear-driven apologies designed to manage a crisis rather than face a fault. Private lives, too, can be ruled by dread of consequences instead of love of the good. Fear asks, How do I get out of this? Humility asks, How can I be made right? The former may keep a person from scandal; the latter remakes the person. Great, indeed, is the difference.