Erasmus Quotes

Surely there is nothing so ungracious, nor nothing so cruel, but men will hold therewith, if it be once approved by custom.

I hate one that remembers what's done over the cup.

tis the part of a truly prudent man not to be wise beyond his condition, but either to take no notice of what the world does, or run with it for company

A life without books is unlivable

There are others who are rich only in wishes; they build beautiful air-castles and conceive that doing so is enough for happiness.

Turn the pages of history and you will always find the morality of an age reflecting the life of its prince.

A remarkable thing happens in the experience of my fools: from them not only true things, but even sharp reproaches, will be listened to; so that a statement which, if it came from a wise man's mouth, might be a capital offense, coming from a fool gives rise to incredible delight. Veracity, you know, has a certain authentic power of giving pleasure, if nothing offensive goes with it; but this the gods have granted only to fools.

If a rock falls on your head it does positive harm, but shame, disgrace, reproaches and insults are damaging only in so far as you're conscious of them.

How fleeting, how brief, how fragile is the life of a man, and how subject to misfortune, assailed already by a multitude of diseases and accidents, buildings which collapse, shipwrecks, earthquakes, lightning! We do not need to add war to our woes, and yet it causes more woe than all the others.

for self-love is no more than the soothing of a man's self, which, done to another, is flattery.

I hear the philosophers opposing it and saying 'tis a miserable thing for a man to be foolish, to err, mistake, and know nothing truly. Nay rather, this is to be a man. And why they should call it miserable, I see no reason; forasmuch as we are so born, so bred, so instructed, nay such is the common condition of us all.

I do not like a child that is a man too soon.

dulce es la guerra para los que no la han experimentado.

The happiness which Christians seek with so many labours is nothing other than a certain kind of madness and folly

Man is a godlike animal, and free twice over: once by nature, and again by his laws.