Desiderius Erasmus Quotes

Quotes about:

• Read first the best books. The important thing for you is not how much you know, but the quality of what you know.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Book, Important, Quality

  76 Copy quote

• The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Education, Wisdom, Lying

  59 Copy quote

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

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Men, Deception, Mind

  Desiderius Erasmus (1986). “Literary and Educational Writings: Panegyricus and Philippum Austriaeducem. Moriae encomium. Dialogus Julius exclusus e coelis. Institutio principis christiani. Querela pacis”

  29 Copy quote

• Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Inspirational, Uplifting, Light Life

  108 Copy quote

• The chief element of happiness is this: to want to be what you are.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Elements, Want, Chiefs

  "Worship at the temple of Folly" by Nicholas Lezard, www.theguardian.com. March 28, 2008.

  34 Copy quote

• 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

  Nature, Believe, Ignorance

  21 Copy quote

• He who allows oppression shares the crime.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Perseverance, Freedom, Democracy

  41 Copy quote

• Our determination to imitiate Christ should be such that we have no time for other matters.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Time, Determination, Persistence

  23 Copy quote

• 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

  Country, Men, Law

  Desiderius Erasmus, Betty Radice (1990). “Praise of Folly”

  62 Copy quote

• When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Inspirational, Motivational, Money

  Desiderius Erasmus' letter to Jacob Batt, April 12, 1500.

  31 Copy quote

• There is no joy in possession without sharing.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Change, Caring, Joy

  28 Copy quote

• By a Carpenter mankind was made, and only by that Carpenter can mankind be remade.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Jesus Christ, Made, Mankind

  78 Copy quote

• In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Wisdom, Kings, Men

  Desiderius Erasmus, William Watson Barker (2001). “The Adages of Erasmus”, p.276, University of Toronto Press

  35 Copy quote

• A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Wisdom, Overcoming, Nails

  79 Copy quote

• Now what else is the whole life of mortals, but a sort of comedy in which the various actors, disguised by various costumes and masks, walk on and play each ones part until the manager walks them off the stage?

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Play, Actors, Criminal Mind

  13 Copy quote

• I put up with this church, in the hope that one day it will become better, just as it is constrained to put up with me in the hope that I will become better.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Church, One Day

  31 Copy quote

• War is sweet to those who haven't tasted it. Dulce bellum inexpertis.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Sweet, Peace, War

  47 Copy quote

• Great abundance of riches cannot be gathered and kept by any man without sin.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Men, Riches, Poverty

  16 Copy quote

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

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Honor, Enthusiasm, Sin

  14 Copy quote

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

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Doe, Pay, Intellect

  "Due Reverence: Antiques in the Possession of the American Philosophical Society". Book by Murphy D. Smith (p. 3), 1992.

  22 Copy quote

• Only a very few can be learned, but all can be Christian, all can be devout, and – I shall boldly add – all can be theologians.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Christian, Add, Theologian

  Desiderius Erasmus, Beatus Rhenanus, John C. Olin (1987). “Christian Humanism and the Reformation: Selected Writings of Erasmus, with His Life by Beatus Rhenanus and a Biographical Sketch by the Editor”, p.104, Fordham Univ Press

  7 Copy quote

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

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Names, Legacy, Paganism

  34 Copy quote

• Fortune favors the audacious.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Favors, Fortune, Audacious

  98 Copy quote

• He who doesn't sin, is the greatest sinner of all.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Wise, Wisdom, Sin

  33 Copy quote

• The majority of the common people loathe war and pray for peace; only a handful of individuals, whose evil joys depend on general misery, desire war.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  War, People, Evil

  Desiderius Erasmus, Erika Rummel (1990). “The Erasmus Reader”, p.313, University of Toronto Press

  56 Copy quote

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