"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."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Age and Aging
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"Man's mind is so formed that it is far more susceptible to falsehood than to truth."

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

Erasmus, Desiderius on Doctors
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"Great eagerness in the pursuit of wealth, pleasure, or honor, cannot exist without sin."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Enthusiasm
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"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."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Evil
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"What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Fame
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"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."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Fools and Foolishness
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"In short, no association or alliance can be happy or stable without me. People can't long tolerate a ruler, nor can a master his servant, a maid her mistress, a teacher his pupil, a friend his friend nor a wife her husband, a landlord his tenant, a soldier his comrade nor a party-goer his companion, unless they sometimes have illusions about each other, make use of flattery, and have the sense to turn a blind eye and sweeten life for themselves with the honey of folly."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Fools and Foolishness
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"Fools are without number."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Fools and Foolishness
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"Everybody hates a prodigy, detests an old head on young shoulders."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Genius
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"The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Ability
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"Time takes away the grief of men."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Grief
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"A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Habit
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"It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Happiness
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"Now I believe I can hear the philosophers protesting that it can only be misery to live in folly, illusion, deception and ignorance, but it isn't --it's human."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Human Nature
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"They take unbelievable pleasure in the hideous blast of the hunting horn and baying of the hounds. Dogs dung smells sweet as cinnamon to them."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Hunting
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"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?"

Erasmus, Desiderius on Illusion
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"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."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Insanity
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"Ask a wise man to dinner and he'll upset everyone by his gloomy silence or tiresome questions. Invite him to a dance and you'll have a camel prancing about. Haul him off to a public entertainment and his face will be enough to spoil the people's entertainment."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Intelligence and Intellectuals
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"By a Carpenter mankind was made, and only by that Carpenter can mankind be remade."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Jesus Christ
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"Amongst the learned the lawyers claim first place, the most self-satisfied class of people, as they roll their rock of Sisyphus and string together six hundred laws in the same breath, no matter whether relevant or not, piling up opinion on opinion and gloss on gloss to make their profession seem the most difficult of all. Anything which causes trouble has special merit in their eyes."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Law and Lawyers
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"This type of man who is devoted to the study of wisdom is always most unlucky in everything, and particularly when it comes to procreating children; I imagine this is because Nature wants to ensure that the evils of wisdom shall not spread further throughout mankind."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Learning
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"Your library is your paradise."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Libraries
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"Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Light
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"If you look at history you'll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Literature
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"Whether a party can have much success without a woman present I must ask others to decide, but one thing is certain, no party is any fun unless seasoned with folly."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Parties
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"Jupiter, not wanting man's life to be wholly gloomy and grim, has bestowed far more passion than reason --you could reckon the ration as twenty-four to one. Moreover, he confined reason to a cramped corner of the head and left all the rest of the body to the passions."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Passion
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"It is wisdom in prosperity, when all is as thou wouldn't have it, to fear and suspect the worst."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Pessimism
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"As an example of just how useless these philosophers are for any practice in life there is Socrates himself, the one and only wise man, according to the Delphic Oracle. Whenever he tried to do anything in public he had to break off amid general laughter. While he was philosophizing about clouds and ideas, measuring a flea's foot and marveling at a midge's humming, he learned nothing about the affairs of ordinary life."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Philosophers and Philosophy
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"Nothing is so foolish, they say, as for a man to stand for office and woo the crowd to win its vote, buy its support with presents, court the applause of all those fools and feel self-satisfied when they cry their approval, and then in his hour of triumph to be carried round like an effigy for the public to stare at, and end up cast in bronze to stand in the market place."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Politicians and Politics
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"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?"

Erasmus, Desiderius on Babies
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"For them it's out-of-date and outmoded to perform miracles; teaching the people is too like hard work, interpreting the holy scriptures is for schoolmen and praying is a waste of time; to shed tears is weak and womanish, to be needy is degrading; to suffer defeat is a disgrace and hardly fitting for one who scarcely permits the greatest of kings to kiss the toes of his sacred feet; and finally, death is an unattractive prospect, and dying on a cross would be an ignominious end."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Pope
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"Heaven grant that the burden you carry may have as easy an exit as it had an entrance. [Prayer To A Pregnant Woman]"

Erasmus, Desiderius on Prayer
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"Prevention is better than cure."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Prevention
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"Picture the prince, such as most of them are today: a man ignorant of the law, well-nigh an enemy to his people's advantage, while intent on his personal convenience, a dedicated voluptuary, a hater of learning, freedom and truth, without a thought for the interests of his country, and measuring everything in terms of his own profit and desires."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Royalty
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"People who use their erudition to write for a learned minority... don't seem to me favored by fortune but rather to be pitied for their continuous self-torture. They add, change, remove, lay aside, take up, rephrase, show to their friends, keep for nine years and are never satisfied. And their futile reward, a word of praise from a handful of people, they win at such a cost -- so many late nights, such loss of sleep, sweetest of all things, and so much sweat and anguish... their health deteriorates, their looks are destroyed, they suffer partial or total blindness, poverty, ill-will, denial of pleasure, premature old age and early death."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Scholars and Scholarship
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"When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Books - Reading
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"No one respects a talent that is concealed."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Talent
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"Concealed talent brings no reputation."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Talent
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"It's the generally accepted privilege of theologians to stretch the heavens, that is the Scriptures, like tanners with a hide."

Erasmus, Desiderius on Theology
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