Desiderius Erasmus famous quotes

03-28-2025

Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Inspirational #Uplifting #Light
It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Positive #Men #Willing
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
Fortune favors the audacious.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Favors #Fortune #Audacious
Amongst the learned the lawyers claim first place, the most self-satisfied class of people, as they roll their rock of Sisyphus and string together six hundred laws in the same breath, no matter whether relevant or not, piling up opinion on opinion and gloss on gloss to make their profession seem the most difficult of all. Anything which causes trouble has special merit in their eyes.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Eye #Rocks #Self
Apothegms are in history, the same as pearls in the sand, or gold in the mine.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Gold #Pearls #Sand
A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Wisdom #Overcoming #Nails
War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Peace #Military #War
By a Carpenter mankind was made, and only by that Carpenter can mankind be remade.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Made #Mankind #Carpenter
They may attack me with an army of six hundred syllogisms; and if I do not recant, they will proclaim me a heretic.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Army #May #Six
What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Names #Legacy #Paganism
When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Inspirational #Money #Food
Great abundance of riches cannot be gathered and kept by any man without sin.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Men #Riches #Poverty
The desire to write grows with writing.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Writing #Desire #Grows
He who allows oppression shares the crime.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Perseverance #Freedom #Democracy
Bidden or unbidden, God is present.
-- 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

#Fun #Party #Certain
Man is to man either a god or a wolf.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Men
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
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

#Life #Death #Time
In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Wisdom #Kings #Men
The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Peace #Military #War
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
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
Great eagerness in the pursuit of wealth, pleasure, or honor, cannot exist without sin.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Honor #Enthusiasm #Sin
No one respects a talent that is concealed.
-- Desiderius Erasmus

#Inspirational #Genius #Talent

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