Desiderius Erasmus Quotes - Page 4

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It hardly needs explaining at length, I think, how much authority or beauty is added to style by the timely use of proverbs. In the first place who does not see what dignity they confer on style by their antiquity alone?... And so to interweave adages deftly and appropriately is to make the language as a whole glitter with sparkles from Antiquity, please us with the colours of the art of rhetoric, gleam with jewel-like words of wisdom, and charm us with titbits of wit and humour.

Desiderius Erasmus

Art, Thinking, Jewels

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

Desiderius Erasmus

Church Music, Modern, Music Is

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Ask a wise man to dinner and he'll upset everyone by his gloomy silence or tiresome questions. Invite him to a dance and you'll have a camel prancing about. Haul him off to a public entertainment and his face will be enough to spoil the people's entertainment.

Desiderius Erasmus

Wise, Intelligent, Men

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

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Man is to man either a god or a wolf.

Desiderius Erasmus

Men

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Given a choice between a folly and a sacrament, one should always choose the folly—because we know a sacrament will not bring us closer to god and there’s always the chance that a folly will.

Desiderius Erasmus

Choices, Chance, Should

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As an example of just how useless these philosophers are for any practice in life there is Socrates himself, the one and only wise man, according to the Delphic Oracle. Whenever he tried to do anything in public he had to break off amid general laughter. While he was philosophizing about clouds and ideas, measuring a flea's foot and marveling at a midge's humming, he learned nothing about the affairs of ordinary life.

Desiderius Erasmus

Life, Wise, Laughter

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For them it's out-of-date and outmoded to perform miracles; teaching the people is too like hard work, interpreting the holy scriptures is for schoolmen and praying is a waste of time; to shed tears is weak and womanish, to be needy is degrading; to suffer defeat is a disgrace and hardly fitting for one who scarcely permits the greatest of kings to kiss the toes of his sacred feet; and finally, death is an unattractive prospect, and dying on a cross would be an ignominious end.

Desiderius Erasmus

Kings, Teaching, Hard Work

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

Desiderius Erasmus

Dog, Culture, Bones

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Nowadays the rage for possession has got to such a pitch that there is nothing in the realm of nature, whether sacred or profane, out of which profit cannot be squeezed.

Desiderius Erasmus

Sacred, Rage, Profit

Desiderius Erasmus, Margaret Mann Phillips (1967). “Erasmus on His Times: A Shortened Version of the 'Adages' of Erasmus”, p.45, Cambridge University Press

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Invoked or not invoked, the god is present.

Desiderius Erasmus

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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

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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Out of all those centuries the Greeks can count seven sages at the most, and if anyone looks at them more closely I swear he'll not find so much as a half-wise man or even a third of a wise man among them.

Desiderius Erasmus

Wise, Men, Greek

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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You'll see certain Pythagorean whose belief in communism of property goes to such lengths that they pick up anything lying about unguarded, and make off with it without a qualm of conscience as if it had come to them by law.

Desiderius Erasmus

Lying, Law, Qualms About

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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[N]o party is any fun unless seasoned with folly.

Desiderius Erasmus

Fun, Party, Folly

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

Desiderius Erasmus

Mind, Body, Wedlock

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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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This type of man who is devoted to the study of wisdom is always most unlucky in everything, and particularly when it comes to procreating children; I imagine this is because Nature wants to ensure that the evils of wisdom shall not spread further throughout mankind.

Desiderius Erasmus

Education, Children, Learning

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

Desiderius Erasmus

Heaven, Atheism, Scripture

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

Desiderius Erasmus

Affair, Obscure, Humans

Desiderius Erasmus (1965). “Essential works of Erasmus”

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He who shuns the millstone, shuns the meal.

Desiderius Erasmus

Work, Meals

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So our student will flit like a busy bee through the entire garden of literature, light on every blossom, collect a little nectar from each, and carry it to his hive.

Desiderius Erasmus

Garden, Light, Literature

Desiderius Erasmus, William Watson Barker (2001). “The Adages of Erasmus”, p.33, University of Toronto Press

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Fortune favours the audacious.

Desiderius Erasmus

Courage, Luck, Favour

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Time takes away the grief of men.

Desiderius Erasmus

Grief, Men

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Be careful not to be the first to put your hands in the dish. What you cannot hold in your hands you must put on your plate. Also it is a great breach of etiquette when your fingers are dirty and greasy, to bring them to your mouth in order to lick them, or to clean them on your jacket. It would be more decent to use the tablecloth.

Desiderius Erasmus

Dirty, Food, Hands

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Born: October 27, 1466
Died: July 12, 1536
Occupation: Theologian
Cite this Page: Citation

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