The Praise of Folly

by Erasmus

old proverb that says, "He may lawfully praise himself that lives far from neighbors."

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Sophocles in that his happy elegy of us, "To know nothing is the only happiness,"

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use the words of Aristophanes, "Nasty, crumpled, miserable, shriveled, bald, toothless, and wanting their baubles,"

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though yet I have not determined whether every distemper of the sense or understanding be to be called madness.

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I scarce know anyone in all mankind that is wise at all hours, or has not some tang or other of madness.

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so sweet a thing it is not to be wise, that on the contrary men rather pray against anything than folly.

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

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Paul knew what faith was, and yet when he said, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen," he did not define it doctor-like.

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