Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus > Quotes

“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“The desire to write grows with writing.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“The summit of happiness is reached when a person is ready to be what he is.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“Your library is your paradise.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“He who allows oppression shares the crime.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“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.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“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.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king (In regione caecorum rex est luscus).”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“Everybody hates a prodigy, detests an old head on young shoulders.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“The chief element of happiness is this: to want to be what you are.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, Praise of Folly

“When I get a little money I buy books, and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, The Colloquies of Erasmus Volume I

“Bidden or unbidden, God is present.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, Adagia.

“Just as nothing is more foolish than misplaced wisdom, so too, nothing is more imprudent than perverse prudence. And surely it is perverse not to adapt yourself to the prevailing circumstances, to refuse 'to do as the Romans do,' to ignore the party-goer's maxium 'take a drink or take your leave,' to insist that the play should not be a play. True prudence, on the other hand, recognizes human limitations and does not strive to leap beyond them; it is willing to run with the herd, to overlook faults tolerantly or to share them in a friendly spirit. But, they say, that is exactly what we mean by folly. (I will hardly deny it -- as long as they will reciprocate by admitting that this is exactly what is means to perform the play of life.)”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, Praise of Folly

“At last concluded that no creature was more miserable than man, for that all other creatures are content with those bounds that nature set them, only man endeavors to exceed them.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“It is wiser to treat men and things as though we held this world the common fatherland of all.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“Nicht die haben Bücher recht lieb, welche sie unberührt in den Schränken aufheben, sondern die, die sie Tag und Nacht in den Händen halten.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“When I get a little money, I buy books and if any is left I buy food and clothes.”
― Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus