Quotes from Desiderius Erasmus

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

Time takes away the grief of men.

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

There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.

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.

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

The desire to write grows with writing.

Wherever you encounter truth, look upon it as Christianity.

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

Humility is truth.

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

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.

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

Fortune favours the audacious.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.