Quotes by Erasmus

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The church was founded on blood, strengthened by blood, and increased by blood.

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As there is nothing more foolish than unsolicited wisdom, so there is nothing more reckless than extravagant temperance. Extravagant I call anyone who does not want to take into account the established state of things and adapt to circumstances.

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Better to know less and love more than to know more and not love.

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Everything has two sides, and these two sides are nothing like each other. On the outside, everything looks dead, but if you look inside, you see life, and vice versa, under the appearance of life hides death, under beauty, servitude, under abundance, a pitiable poverty, under shame, fame, under science , ignorance, under power, infirmity, under nobility, meanness, under joy, sadness.

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Wise nature has wrapped the newborns in a veil of stupidity, which, bewitching parents and educators, rewards them for their efforts, gives the little ones love and protection.

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Men are born for commanding activities, and therefore they had to acquire a few drops of extra reason.

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It's easy to start a war, it's hard to end it.

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Ignorance is the mother of conceit, and erudition begets modesty.

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There is nothing more important than victory over yourself.

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No good thing in life is enjoyable if you don't share it with friends.

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Vice consists precisely in doing something bad as something good.

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Let no one rashly assume so important a thing as self-knowledge.

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Tell yourself honestly, what man would agree to harness the reins of marriage if, according to the custom of the wise, he had previously weighed the troubles of married life?

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Shame is unfit for one in need.

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Human nature is made up in such a way that no one is safe from serious vices.

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Everything we do wrong in our youth we will pay for in our old age.

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Do you want to be praised by being angry? Then be angry with the vice, and not with the person.

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The Christian faith, it seems, resembles a kind of foolishness and is incompatible with wisdom. That it is not by chance that fools are pleasing to God.

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He is justly reprehensible who, being mortal, does not tend to become wiser than a mortal should be, he who indulgently shares the faults of the multitude and respectfully errs with them. But that is exactly what stupidity is, I will be told. I do not comment, but accept that this is exactly what it means to act in the comedy of life.

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What do you think, can he love someone who hates himself?

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If you make new friends, don't forget the old ones.

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True honor is a reward for virtue, and not for wealth.

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Truth itself possesses an irresistible force of attraction only if nothing offensive is added to it, but only fools have the gods given the science of telling the truth without offending anyone.

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Sometimes to love well is to hate well, and to hate without fault is to love.

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The stomach does not fill with stories.

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Most people are crazy and everyone is crazy in their own way.

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Man is not at war with man, but with himself, and the enemy always rushes at us precisely from within our own nature.

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Madness creates the state, sustains power, religion, government and justice. What else is the whole life of man but a game of Madness?

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To be honest. Was it not wisdom that brought Socrates to the cup of poison?

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Be suspicious of everything that comes from your soul, even if it's something honest.

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If all mortals would turn away from all pursuit of wisdom, and spend their lives only in the company of folly, there would be no old man in the world, and all would enjoy eternal youth. Look at all these dry grumps busying themselves with the study of philosophy or other difficult and boring pursuits. They didn't even get to be young and they are already old. Persevering and unceasing cares and meditations have laid waste their souls, exhausted their life-sap.

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When a wise man intervenes in a discussion, he frightens everyone no less than a wolf. If there is something to be bought, if a business is to be concluded, if, in short, it is one of those things without which our life is not possible, this sage will seem to you an incomparable fool, and not a being human. He cannot be useful either to himself or to his country, because he is ignorant of the commonest things, and is very far removed from the general opinions and customs respected by all the world. From such inconsistency with the reality of life and morals, a hatred towards everything around is certainly born, because in human society everything is soaked in stupidity, everything is done by fools among fools.

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No one is forbidden to live a dignified life.

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Elegance is necessary not only in the arts, but also in all human activities.

"If only God is among us, and eternity exists, then everything is different. We can distinguish good from evil, light from darkness, and despair disappears."

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Man has a tongue to tell the truth.

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Eloquence largely consists of lying skillfully.

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The root of happiness: want to be who you are.

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What else is all mortal life but a kind of play, in which various actors appear dressed in various costumes and masks, and each plays his part until the director brings them off the stage?

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When I have some money, I buy books, and if there is any left over, I spend it on food and clothes.

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A fool's opinion governs both the most important and the most insignificant things.

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It is often the slip of the tongue that says what is true.

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The king is one-eyed among the blind.

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Without a certain amount of stupidity, a person wouldn't be born at all.