It hardly needs explaining at length, I think, how much authority or beauty is added to style by the timely use of proverbs. In the first place who does not see what dignity they confer on style by their antiquity alone?... And so to interweave adages deftly and appropriately is to make the language as a whole glitter with sparkles from Antiquity, please us with the colours of the art of rhetoric, gleam with jewel-like words of wisdom, and charm us with titbits of wit and humour.
Desiderius ErasmusSacred scripture is of course the basic authority for everything; yet I sometimes run across ancient sayings or pagan writings - even the poets - so purely and reverently and admirably expressed that I can't help believing the author's hearts were moved by some divine power. And perhaps the spirit of Christ is more widespread than we understand, and the company of the saints includes many not on our calendar.
Desiderius ErasmusBesides, it happens (how, I cannot tell) that an idea launched like a javelin in proverbial form strikes with sharper point on the hearer's mind and leaves implanted barbs for meditation.
Desiderius ErasmusNothing 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.
Desiderius ErasmusWhat 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?
Desiderius ErasmusIt is wisdom in prosperity, when all is as thou wouldn't have it, to fear and suspect the worst.
Desiderius ErasmusIt's the generally accepted privilege of theologians to stretch the heavens, that is the Scriptures, like tanners with a hide.
Desiderius ErasmusIt is an unscrupulous intellect that does not pay to antiquity its due reverence.
Desiderius ErasmusGod has administered to us of the present age, a bitter draught and a harsh physician, on account of our abounding infirmities.
Desiderius ErasmusAmongst 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.
Desiderius ErasmusGreat eagerness in the pursuit of wealth, pleasure, or honor, cannot exist without sin.
Desiderius ErasmusWhat passes out of one's mouth passes into a hundred ears. It is a great misfortune not to have sense enough to speak well.
Desiderius ErasmusNow 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.
Desiderius ErasmusWhat is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.
Desiderius ErasmusAlmost all Christians being wretchedly enslaved to blindness and ignorance, which the priests are so far from preventing or removing, that they blacken the darkness, and promote the delusion: wisely foreseeing that the people (like cows, which never give down their milk so well as when they are gently stroked), would part with less if they knew more.
Desiderius ErasmusFor 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.
Desiderius ErasmusA good prince will tax as lightly as possible those commodities which are used by the poorest members of society: grain, bread, beer, wine, clothing, and all other staples without which human life could not exist.
Desiderius ErasmusIt seems to me to be the best proof of an evangelical disposition, that persons are not angry when reproached, and have a Christian charity for those that ill deserve it.
Desiderius ErasmusNature, 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.
Desiderius ErasmusYoung bodies are like tender plants, which grow and become hardened to whatever shape you've trained them.
Desiderius ErasmusOut of all those centuries the Greeks can count seven sages at the most, and if anyone looks at them more closely I swear he'll not find so much as a half-wise man or even a third of a wise man among them.
Desiderius ErasmusModern church music is so constructed that the congregation cannot hear one distinct word.
Desiderius Erasmus...it is a sneaking piece of cowardice for authors to put feigned names to their works, as if, like bastards of their brain, they were afraid to own them.
Desiderius ErasmusYou'll see certain Pythagorean whose belief in communism of property goes to such lengths that they pick up anything lying about unguarded, and make off with it without a qualm of conscience as if it had come to them by law.
Desiderius ErasmusI 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 ErasmusOnly a very few can be learned, but all can be Christian, all can be devout, and โ I shall boldly add โ all can be theologians.
Desiderius ErasmusThe 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.
Desiderius ErasmusFrom hence, no question, has sprung an observation ... confirmed now into a settled opinion, that some long experienced souls in the world, before their dislodging, arrive to the height of prophetic spirits.
Desiderius ErasmusOur determination to imitiate Christ should be such that we have no time for other matters.
Desiderius ErasmusYou must acquire the best knowledge first, and without delay; it is the height of madness to learn what you will later have to unlearn.
Desiderius Erasmus