Desiderius Erasmus quotes

“Don't give your advice before you are called upon.”

— Desiderius Erasmus

“Great eagerness in the pursuit of wealth, pleasure, or honor, cannot exist without sin.”

— Desiderius Erasmus

“It is an unscrupulous intellect that does not pay to antiquity its due reverence.”

— Desiderius Erasmus

“What difference is there, do you think, between those in Plato's cave who can only marvel at the shadows and images of various objects, provided they are content and don't know what they miss, and the philosopher who has emerged from the cave and sees the real things?”

— Desiderius Erasmus

“Man's mind is so formed that it is far more susceptible to falsehood than to truth.”

— Desiderius Erasmus

“Human affairs are so obscure and various that nothing can be clearly known.”

— Desiderius Erasmus

“The more ignorant, reckless and thoughtless a doctor is, the higher his reputation soars even amongst powerful princes.”

— Desiderius Erasmus

“It's the generally accepted privilege of theologians to stretch the heavens, that is the Scriptures, like tanners with a hide.”

— Desiderius Erasmus

“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”

— Desiderius Erasmus

“Everybody hates a prodigy, detests an old head on young shoulders.”

— Desiderius Erasmus

“It is wisdom in prosperity, when all is as thou wouldn't have it, to fear and suspect the worst.”

— Desiderius Erasmus

“Luther was guilty of two great crimes - he struck the Pope in his crown, and the monks in their belly.”

— Desiderius Erasmus

“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

“War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it.”

— Desiderius Erasmus

“A good portion of speaking will consist in knowing how to lie.”

— Desiderius Erasmus

“By burning Luther's books you may rid your bookshelves of him, but you will not rid men's minds of him.”

— Desiderius Erasmus

“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

“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

“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

“Everyone knows that by far the happiest and universally enjoyable age of man is the first. What is there about babies which makes us hug and kiss and fondle them, so that even an enemy would give them help at that age?”

— Desiderius Erasmus