Erasmus Quotes

The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war.

In regione caecorum rex est luscus.

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.

Ad Graecas literas totum animum applicui; statimque ut pecuniam accepero, Graecos primum autores, deinde vestes emam.

Do not be guilty of possessing a library of learned books while lacking learning yourself.

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.

A constant element of enjoyment must be mingled with our studies, so that we think of learning as a game rather than a form of drudgery, for no activity can be continued for long if it does not to some extent afford pleasure to the participant.

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.

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