Desiderius Erasmus Quotes

A good portion of speaking will consist in knowing how to lie.

Desiderius Erasmus



A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit.

Desiderius Erasmus



By a Carpenter mankind was made, and only by that Carpenter can mankind be remade.

Desiderius Erasmus



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

Desiderius Erasmus



Concealed talent brings no reputation.

Desiderius Erasmus



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

Desiderius Erasmus



Everybody hates a prodigy, detests an old head on young shoulders.

Desiderius Erasmus



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?

Desiderius Erasmus



Fools are without number.

Desiderius Erasmus



Fortune favors the audacious.

Desiderius Erasmus



Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.

Desiderius Erasmus



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

Desiderius Erasmus



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

Desiderius Erasmus



He who allows oppression shares the crime.

Desiderius Erasmus



Human affairs are so obscure and various that nothing can be clearly known.

Desiderius Erasmus



Humility is truth.

Desiderius Erasmus



I doubt if a single individual could be found from the whole of mankind free from some form of insanity. The only difference is one of degree. A man who sees a gourd and takes it for his wife is called insane because this happens to very few people.

Desiderius Erasmus



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.

Desiderius Erasmus



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

Desiderius Erasmus



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

Desiderius Erasmus