Quotes By Desiderius Erasmus

No one respects a talent that is concealed.

War is sweet to those who have not experienced it.

To know nothing is the happiest life.

If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it won't happen.

In the country of the blind the one eyed man is king.

What difference is there, do you think, between those in Plato's cave who can only marvel at the shadows and images of various objects, provided they are content and don't know what they miss, and the philosopher who has emerged from the cave and sees the real things?

The more ignorant, reckless and thoughtless a doctor is, the higher his reputation soars even amongst powerful princes.

Women, can't live with them, can't live without them.

Nowadays the rage for possession has got to such a pitch that there is nothing in the realm of nature, whether sacred or profane, out of which profit cannot be squeezed.

By burning Luther's books you may rid your bookshelves of him, but you will not rid men's minds of him.

What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.

Everyone knows that by far the happiest and universally enjoyable age of man is the first. What is there about babies which makes us hug and kiss and fondle them, so that even an enemy would give them help at that age?

Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.

It is an unscrupulous intellect that does not pay to antiquity its due reverence.

Concealed talent brings no reputation.

War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it.

Time takes away the grief of men.

There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.

In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

Great eagerness in the pursuit of wealth, pleasure, or honor, cannot exist without sin.

Humility is truth.

He who allows oppression shares the crime.

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.

Prevention is better than cure.

The nearer people approach old age the closer they return to a semblance of childhood, until the time comes for them to depart this life, again like children, neither tired of living nor aware of death.

Great abundance of riches cannot be gathered and kept by any man without sin.

Fools are without number.

Don't give your advice before you are called upon.

The entire world is my temple, and a very fine one too, if I'm not mistaken, and I'll never lack priests to serve it as long as there are men.

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