We are born crying, live complaining, and die disappointed
Attributed toThomas Fuller1654–1734 · English physician & aphorist; compiler of ‘Gnomologia’ (1732). Not the church historian Thomas Fuller (1608–1661), with whom he is routinely confused.
The line is long credited to Thomas Fuller and cited to his Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs (London, 1732) at p. 236 by Wikiquote — but in the full text it sits in an unnumbered appendix tagged ‘(The Optimist)’ rather than among the numbered proverbs, so its exact placement in Gnomologia is unconfirmed. Either way it is the physician Fuller (1654–1734), not the 1608 historian the quote sites credit.
“We are born crying, live complaining, and die disappointed” We are born crying, live complaining, and die disappointed. —Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia (1732)
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In context
Evoking the world of Thomas Fuller — English physician & aphorist; compiler of Gnomologia (1732). Theme: "We are born crying, live complaining, and die disappointed". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
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Provenance
The documented source
Work
Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs; Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British
Compiler
Thomas Fuller (1654–1734), physician
Published
London, 1732
Located
p. 236 (per Wikiquote)
We are born crying, live complaining, and die disappointed.
On the full text the line sits in an unnumbered appendix tagged ‘(The Optimist)’, after the last numbered proverb — not among the several thousand numbered adages — so its status as a core Gnomologia proverb is unconfirmed.
Reproduced verbatim in a full text of Fuller’s Gnomologia — in an unnumbered appendix tagged ‘(The Optimist)’, after the last numbered proverb rather than among the numbered adages: “We are born crying, live complaining, and die disappointed.”
Listed with its English original among Fuller’s Gnomologia proverbs by Aforismario.
Wikiquote files it under “collected by Thomas Fuller” and cites Gnomologia (London, 1732), p. 236.
✓Public domain
A long-circulating saying credited to Fuller, in print since well before the 20th century — comfortably before 1931 — so both the saying and Fuller’s printed collections are in the public domain in the United States.
Fact-check
Who it gets pinned on instead
The line is real and the attribution to “Thomas Fuller” is broadly correct — but two things go wrong almost every time it’s quoted.
✕
The wrong FullerThomas Fuller (1608–1661), the church historian Confused identity
Quote sites file it under the famous historian — e.g. Goodreads lists it beside Good Thoughts in Bad Times, and Wikiquote even places the Gnomologia (1732) citation under the 1608 clergyman. Gnomologia was compiled by the other Thomas Fuller, the physician (1654–1734), who was seven years old when the historian died.
✓The documented origin is Thomas Fuller’s Gnomologia (1732) — the physician-aphorist Fuller, not the historian, and not Samuel Johnson.
Context
Why it endures
The proverb compresses a whole life into three sour beats — entrance, duration, exit — and the parallel grammar (born…live…die) makes it stick. That neat, epigrammatic shape is exactly what Fuller’s Gnomologia was built to preserve: over six thousand numbered sayings, harvested from classical, Continental and English sources for readers to quote.
Because Fuller was a collector, the line may well be older than any printing — and while it is long credited to him and cited to Gnomologia (1732), the full text segregates it in an unnumbered ‘(The Optimist)’ appendix rather than among the numbered proverbs, which is why we mark it ‘attributed’ rather than claiming Fuller coined it.
Born crying, living complaining, dying disappointed — a life in three verbs.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1654–1734 · English physician & aphorist; compiler of Gnomologia (1732)
Thomas Fuller (1654–1734) was an English physician, preacher and writer, best remembered today for Gnomologia (1732), a vast collection of proverbs, maxims and witty sayings later mined by Benjamin Franklin for Poor Richard’s Almanack. He is constantly confused with the far more famous Thomas Fuller (1608–1661), the church historian who wrote The Worthies of England and Good Thoughts in Bad Times — a mix-up that quote databases repeat wholesale.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Primary source — Chicago
Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs; Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British (London: Barker et al., 1732), p. 236.
MLA (9th ed.)
Fuller, Thomas. Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs; Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British. Barker et al., 1732, p. 236.
APA (7th ed.)
Fuller, T. (1732). Gnomologia: Adagies and proverbs; wise sentences and witty sayings, ancient and modern, foreign and British. Barker et al.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘We are born crying, live complaining, and die disappointed’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/we-are-born-crying-live-complaining-and-die-disappointed