Desiderius Erasmus Quotes - Page 5

Quotes about:

• War is sweet to those who have not experienced it.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Sweet, Peace, War

  Desiderius Erasmus (1962). “Handbook of the Militant Christian”

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• If you look at history you'll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Philosophy, Power, Hands

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

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• I consider as lovers of books not those who keep their books hidden in their store-chests and never handle them, but those who, by nightly as well as daily use thumb them, batter them, wear them out, who fill out all the margins with annotations of many kinds, and who prefer the marks of a fault they have erased to a neat copy full of faults.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Book, Use, Thumbs

  Desiderius Erasmus, Richard J. Schoeck, Beatrice Corrigan (1974). “Collected Works of Erasmus: The correspondence of Erasmus”

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• Time takes away the grief of men.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Grief, Men

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• They are looking in utter darkness for that which has no existence whatsoever.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Darkness, Atheism, Existence

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• Fortune favours the audacious.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Courage, Luck, Favour

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• A good prince will tax as lightly as possible those commodities which are used by the poorest members of society: grain, bread, beer, wine, clothing, and all other staples without which human life could not exist.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Wine, Beer, Bread

  Desiderius Erasmus (1965). “The education of a Christian prince”, Hippocrene Books

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• From hence, no question, has sprung an observation ... confirmed now into a settled opinion, that some long experienced souls in the world, before their dislodging, arrive to the height of prophetic spirits.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Long, Soul, World

  Desiderius Erasmus (2016). “In Praise of Folly”, p.85, Desiderius Erasmus

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• 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

  Mother, Nature, Heart

  Desiderius Erasmus, Erika Rummel (1990). “The Erasmus Reader”, p.156, University of Toronto Press

  55 Copy quote

• 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

  Baby, Kissing, Men

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

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• Anything which causes trouble has special merit in their eyes.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Eye, Special, Causes

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

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• 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

  Passion, Men, Feelings

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

  28 Copy quote

• Besides, it happens (how, I cannot tell) that an idea launched like a javelin in proverbial form strikes with sharper point on the hearer's mind and leaves implanted barbs for meditation.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Ideas, Meditation, Mind

  Desiderius Erasmus, William Watson Barker (2001). “The Adages of Erasmus”, p.16, University of Toronto Press

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• 'Tis an easier matter to raise the devil than to lay him.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Devil, Matter, Easier

  Desiderius Erasmus (1733). “All the Familiar Colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus, of Roterdam, Concerning Men, Manners, and Things”, p.202

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• It is folly alone that stays the fugue of Youth and beats off touring Old Age.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Age, Youth, Beats

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• I have turned my entire attention to Greek. The first thing I shall do, as soon as the money arrives, is to buy some Greek authors; after that, I shall buy clothes.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Clothes, Greek, Attention

  Desiderius Erasmus (1974). “The Correspondence of Erasmus: Letters 1 to 141, 1484-1500”, p.252, University of Toronto Press

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• In short, no association or alliance can be happy or stable without me. People can't long tolerate a ruler, nor can a master his servant, a maid her mistress, a teacher his pupil, a friend his friend nor a wife her husband, a landlord his tenant, a soldier his comrade nor a party-goer his companion, unless they sometimes have illusions about each other, make use of flattery, and have the sense to turn a blind eye and sweeten life for themselves with the honey of folly.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Teacher, Husband, Party

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• Dulce bellum inexpertis. - War is lovely for those who know nothing about it.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  War, Lovely, Knows

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• Christians would show sense if they dispatched these argumentative Scotists and pigheaded Ockhamists and undefeated Albertists along with the whole regiment of Sophists to fight the Turks and Saracens instead of sending those armies of dull-witted soldiers with whom they've long been carrying on war with no result.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Christian, War, Fighting

  Desiderius Erasmus, Erika Rummel (1990). “The Erasmus Reader”, p.160, University of Toronto Press

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• Retain the wind by compressing the belly.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Wind, Belly

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• 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

  Dog, Sweet, Hunting

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

  57 Copy quote

• Human affairs are so obscure and various that nothing can be clearly known. This was the sound conclusion of the Academic sceptics, who were the least surly of philosophers.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Sound, Philosopher, Affair

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• [Only by] the good influence of our conduct may we bring salvation in human affairs; or like a fatal comet we may bring destruction in our train.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  May, Influence, Affair

  Attributed to Desiderius Erasmus by Senator J. William Fulbright, "In Need of a Consensus," Penrose Memorial Lecture, delivered to the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 20, 1961.

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• The opinion formulated by the Church has more value in my eyes than human reasons, whatever they may be.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Eye, Religion, Atheism

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

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Fear, Prosperity, Pessimism

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