Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian...
NationalityDutch
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth26 October 1466
mind body wedlock
The wedlocks of minds will be greater than that of bodies.
men village six
The Jewish usurers are fast-rooted even in the smallest villages, and if they lend five gulden they require a security of six times as much. They charge interest, upon interest, and upon this again interest, so that the poor man loses everything that he owns.
grief men
Time takes away the grief of men.
giving advice
Don't give your advice before you are called upon.
knowledge delay height
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.
dog culture bones
Do not put chewed bones back on plates. Instead, throw them on the floor for the dog.
wise intelligent men
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.
names brain pieces
...it is a sneaking piece of cowardice for authors to put feigned names to their works, as if, like bastards of their brain, they were afraid to own them.
play actors criminal-mind
Now what else is the whole life of mortals, but a sort of comedy in which the various actors, disguised by various costumes and masks, walk on and play each ones part until the manager walks them off the stage?
christian add theologian
Only a very few can be learned, but all can be Christian, all can be devout, and – I shall boldly add – all can be theologians.
life inspire live-by
To know nothing is the happiest life.
heaven atheism scripture
It's the generally accepted privilege of theologians to stretch the heavens, that is the Scriptures, like tanners with a hide.
wise wisdom sin
He who doesn't sin, is the greatest sinner of all.
book use thumbs
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.