"There is nothing that so much gratifies an ill tongue as when it finds an angry heart"
About this Quote
Gossip doesn’t just feed on facts; it feeds on heat. Fuller’s line is a neat piece of pastoral psychology: the “ill tongue” isn’t merely someone who lies or tattles, but someone whose speech is morally bent, hunting for leverage. What gratifies it most isn’t a juicy secret in the abstract, but the moment it discovers an “angry heart” it can hook into - a person already primed to interpret, repeat, and retaliate.
The intent is corrective. As a 17th-century clergyman, Fuller is less interested in condemning the loudmouth than in warning the listener: your anger makes you usable. The subtext is almost tactical: malicious speech thrives when it finds a willing host, because anger gives slander a rationale. It turns cruelty into “justice,” rumor into “concern,” and spite into “telling it like it is.” An angry person doesn’t just receive the ill tongue’s message; they amplify it, laundering malice through righteous emotion.
Context matters. Fuller wrote in a century of civil conflict, sectarian suspicion, and sharp-edged pamphlet wars - an England where reputations could be destroyed as readily as armies. In that environment, “ill tongues” weren’t harmless busybodies; they were social weapons. Fuller’s aphorism works because it frames moral failure as a partnership, not a solo act: the tongue supplies the spark, the heart supplies the tinder. If you want fewer fires, he implies, don’t only police speech. Defuse the anger that makes bad speech feel so satisfying to spread.
The intent is corrective. As a 17th-century clergyman, Fuller is less interested in condemning the loudmouth than in warning the listener: your anger makes you usable. The subtext is almost tactical: malicious speech thrives when it finds a willing host, because anger gives slander a rationale. It turns cruelty into “justice,” rumor into “concern,” and spite into “telling it like it is.” An angry person doesn’t just receive the ill tongue’s message; they amplify it, laundering malice through righteous emotion.
Context matters. Fuller wrote in a century of civil conflict, sectarian suspicion, and sharp-edged pamphlet wars - an England where reputations could be destroyed as readily as armies. In that environment, “ill tongues” weren’t harmless busybodies; they were social weapons. Fuller’s aphorism works because it frames moral failure as a partnership, not a solo act: the tongue supplies the spark, the heart supplies the tinder. If you want fewer fires, he implies, don’t only police speech. Defuse the anger that makes bad speech feel so satisfying to spread.
Quote Details
| Topic | Anger |
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