Jupiter, not wanting man’s life to be wholly gloomy and grim, has bestowed far more passion than reason—you could reckon the ration as twenty-four to one. Moreover, he confined reason to a cramped corner of the head and left all the rest of the body to the passions.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Passion
Man’s mind is so formed that it is far more susceptible to falsehood than to truth.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Deception/Lying, Deception
There is nothing I congratulate myself on more heartily than on never having joined a sect.
—Desiderius Erasmus
No one respects a talent that is concealed.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Talent
If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don’t do it, and it won’t happen.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Thinking, Action
The more ignorant, reckless and thoughtless a doctor is, the higher his reputation soars even amongst powerful princes.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Medicine, Doctors
The nearer people approach old age the closer they return to a semblance of childhood, until the time comes for them to depart this life, again like children, neither tired of living nor aware of death.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Age
Love that has nothing but beauty to keep it in good health, is short-lived, and apt to have ague-fits.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Love
It is useless to gather virtues without humility, for the spirit of the Lord delighteth to dwell in the hearts of the humble.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Humility
Your library is your paradise.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Paradise, Libraries
Now I believe I can hear the philosophers protesting that it can only be misery to live in folly, illusion, deception and ignorance, but it isn’t—it’s human.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Humanity, Human Nature
This type of man who is devoted to the study of wisdom is always most unlucky in everything, and particularly when it comes to procreating children; I imagine this is because Nature wants to ensure that the evils of wisdom shall not spread further throughout mankind.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Learning
Time takes away the grief of men.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Grief, Grieving
A good portion of speaking will consist in knowing how to lie.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Speaking
As an example of just how useless these philosophers are for any practice in life there is Socrates himself, the one and only wise man, according to the Delphic Oracle. Whenever he tried to do anything in public he had to break off amid general laughter. While he was philosophizing about clouds and ideas, measuring a flea’s foot and marveling at a midge’s humming, he learned nothing about the affairs of ordinary life.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Philosophers, Philosophy
War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: War
Experience is the common school-house of fools and ill men.—Men of wit and honesty are otherwise instructed.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Experience
The entire world is my temple, and a very fine one too, if I’m not mistaken, and I’ll never lack priests to serve it as long as there are men.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Foolishness, Fools
Picture the prince, such as most of them are today: a man ignorant of the law, well-nigh an enemy to his people’s advantage, while intent on his personal convenience, a dedicated voluptuary, a hater of learning, freedom and truth, without a thought for the interests of his country, and measuring everything in terms of his own profit and desires.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Royalty, Kings, Queens
They take unbelievable pleasure in the hideous blast of the hunting horn and baying of the hounds. Dogs dung smells sweet as cinnamon to them.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Hunting
It is wisdom in prosperity, when all is as thou wouldn’t have it, to fear and suspect the worst.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Pessimism
People who use their erudition to write for a learned minority… don’t seem to me favored by fortune but rather to be pitied for their continuous self-torture. They add, change, remove, lay aside, take up, rephrase, show to their friends, keep for nine years and are never satisfied. And their futile reward, a word of praise from a handful of people, they win at such a cost—so many late nights, such loss of sleep, sweetest of all things, and so much sweat and anguish… their health deteriorates, their looks are destroyed, they suffer partial or total blindness, poverty, ill-will, denial of pleasure, premature old age and early death.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Light
The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Ability
Whether a party can have much success without a woman present I must ask others to decide, but one thing is certain, no party is any fun unless seasoned with folly.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Parties
I doubt if a single individual could be found from the whole of mankind free from some form of insanity. The only difference is one of degree. A man who sees a gourd and takes it for his wife is called insane because this happens to very few people.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Insanity
Nothing is as peevish and pedantic as men’s judgments of one another.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Critics, Criticism
Concealed talent brings no reputation.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Reputation, Talent
Nature, more of a stepmother than a mother in several ways, has sown a seed of evil in the hearts of mortals, especially in the more thoughtful men, which makes them dissatisfied with their own lot and envious of another s.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Evil
Prevention is better than cure.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Topics: Medicine
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Corrie Ten Boom Dutch Evangelist
- Henri Nouwen Dutch Catholic Priest
- Thomas Aquinas Italian Catholic Priest
- Baruch Spinoza Dutch Philosopher
- Pope John Paul II Polish Catholic Religious Leader
- Blaise Pascal French Philosopher, Scientist
- Aldous Huxley English Humanist
- Etty Hillesum Jewish Diarist
- Vincent van Gogh Dutch Painter
- John Henry Newman British Theologian, Poet
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