Desiderius Erasmus quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus Famous Quotes & Sayings

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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.

Many times what cannot be refuted by arguments can be parried by laughter.

Retain the wind by compressing the belly.

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

Modern church music is so constructed that the congregation cannot hear one distinct word.

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

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

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

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

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

How do you like our England, you will say? Believe me when I assure you that I have never liked anything as much before.

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

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

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

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

You must acquire the best knowledge first, and without delay; it is the height of madness to learn what you will later have to unlearn.

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

Women, can't live with them, can't live without them.

Prevention is better than cure.

I hate one that remembers what's done over the cup.

God has administered to us of the present age, a bitter draught and a harsh physician, on account of our abounding infirmities.

No Man is wise at all Times, or is without his blind Side.

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

When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.

The wedlocks of minds will be greater than that of bodies.

When I get a little money, I buy books. If any is left, I buy food and clothes.

Frugality is a handsome income.

[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.

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.

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

He who shuns the millstone, shuns the meal.

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

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.

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

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

Young bodies are like tender plants, which grow and become hardened to whatever shape you've trained them.

No one respects a talent that is concealed.

Wherever you encounter truth, look upon it as Christianity.

War is delightful for those who don't know it

What passes out of one's mouth passes into a hundred ears. It is a great misfortune not to have sense enough to speak well.

Nothing is as peevish and pedantic as men's judgments of one another.

By identifying the new learning with heresy, you make orthodoxy synonymous with ignorance.

There is no joy in possession without sharing.

To know nothing is the happiest life.

Man is to man either a god or a wolf.

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

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

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

Time takes away the grief of men.

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

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

Of two evils choose the least.

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.

It is a greater advantage to be honestly educated than honorably born.

Love that has nothing but beauty to keep it in good health is short-lived.

Fortune favours the audacious.

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

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

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

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

Reflection is a flower of the mind, giving out wholesome fragrance; but revelry is the same flower, when rank and running to seed.

Before you sleep, read something that is exquisite, and worth remembering.

It is wiser to treat men and things as though we held this world the common fatherland of all.

Do not put chewed bones back on plates. Instead, throw them on the floor for the dog.

Apothegms are in history, the same as pearls in the sand, or gold in the mine.

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

There is nothing I congratulate myself on more heartily than on never having joined a sect.

Eagles don't catch flies.

Do not be guilty of possessing a library of learned books while lacking learning yourself.

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

It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.

Scarcely is there any peace so unjust that it is better than even the fairest war. -Vix ulla tam iniqua pax, quin bello vel aequissimo sit potior

Invoked or not invoked, the god is present.

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.

We being satiate with continual wars, let the desire of peace a little move us.

Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.

Fools are without number.

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

The highest form of bliss is living with a certain degree of folly.

Nothing doth worse become a man (I will not say a Christian man) than war.

A nail is driven out by another nail; habit is overcome by habit.

They may attack me with an army of six hundred syllogisms; and if I do not recant, they will proclaim me a heretic.

Fortune favors the audacious.

Humility is truth.

The summit of happiness is reached when a person is ready to be what he is.

War is sweet to those who have not experienced it.

The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war.

Surely there is nothing so ungracious, nor nothing so cruel, but men will hold therewith, if it be once approved by custom.

Heaven grant that the burden you carry may have as easy an exit as it had an entrance. Prayer To A Pregnant Woman

I am a citizen of the world, known to all and to all a stranger.