Desiderius Erasmus Quotes
Enjoy the top 139 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Desiderius Erasmus.

“Surely there is nothing so ungracious, nor nothing so cruel, but men will hold therewith, if it be once approved by custom.”
— Desiderius Erasmus —
“Your library is your paradise.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
The summit of happiness is reached when a person is ready to be what he is.
— Desiderius Erasmus
“The chief element of happiness is this: to want to be what you are.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
“He who allows oppression shares the crime.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
“A nail is driven out by another nail; habit is overcome by habit.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
“War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
“Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
Bidden or unbidden, God is present.
— Desiderius Erasmus
— Desiderius Erasmus
“A good portion of speaking will consist in knowing how to lie.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
— Desiderius Erasmus
When I get a little money, I buy books. If any is left, I buy food and clothes.
— Desiderius Erasmus
— Desiderius Erasmus
— Desiderius Erasmus
“We being satiate with continual wars, let the desire of peace a little move us.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
“It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
Man is to man either a god or a wolf.
— Desiderius Erasmus
Nature, more of a stepmother than a mother in several ways, has sown a seed of evil in the hearts of mortals, especially in the more thoughtful men, which makes them dissatisfied with their own lot and envious of another's.
— Desiderius Erasmus
“Nothing is as peevish and pedantic as men's judgments of one another.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
— Desiderius Erasmus
— Desiderius Erasmus
“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
“It is an unscrupulous intellect that does not pay to antiquity its due reverence.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
— Desiderius Erasmus
“War is sweet to those who haven't tasted it. Dulce bellum inexpertis.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
“Wherever you encounter truth, look upon it as Christianity.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
— Desiderius Erasmus
“Apothegms are in history, the same as pearls in the sand, or gold in the mine.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
— Desiderius Erasmus
“By identifying the new learning with heresy, you make orthodoxy synonymous with ignorance.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
“Of two evils choose the least.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
Christians would show sense if they dispatched these argumentative Scotists and pigheaded Ockhamists and undefeated Albertists along with the whole regiment of Sophists to fight the Turks and Saracens instead of sending those armies of dull-witted soldiers with whom they've long been carrying on war with no result.
— Desiderius Erasmus
— Desiderius Erasmus
“Modern church music is so constructed that the congregation cannot hear one distinct word.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
Retain the wind by compressing the belly.
— Desiderius Erasmus
— Desiderius Erasmus
“Our determination to imitiate Christ should be such that we have no time for other matters.”
— Desiderius Erasmus
— Desiderius Erasmus
I am a citizen of the world, known to all and to all a stranger.
— Desiderius Erasmus
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
— Desiderius Erasmus
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
— Desiderius Erasmus
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
Besides, it happens (how, I cannot tell) that an idea launched like a javelin in proverbial form strikes with sharper point on the hearer's mind and leaves implanted barbs for meditation ...
— Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Quotes Pictures
Want to see more pictures of Desiderius Erasmus quotes? Click on image of Desiderius Erasmus quotes to view full size.