Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Revival | Light
A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Habits | Overcoming
Length of life should be measured not by the number of years but by the number of right actions.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Kindness | Service
By a Carpenter mankind was made, and only by that Carpenter can mankind be remade.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Jesus | Restoration
Everybody hates a prodigy, detests an old head on young shoulders.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Youth
No one is to be despaired of as long as he breathes. (While there is life there is hope.)
– Desiderius Erasmus
Life
A good portion of speaking will consist in knowing how to lie.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Lying
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.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Philosophy | Life | Deception
Indeed, I disagree very much with those who are unwilling that Holy Scripture, translated into the vulgar tongue, be read by the uneducated, as if Christ taught such intricate doctrines that they could scarcely be understood by very few theologians, or as if the strength of the Christian religion consisted in men’s ignorance of it.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Scripture | Ignorance | Doctrine
Humility is truth.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Humility
Human affairs are so obscure and various that nothing can be clearly known.
– Desiderius Erasmus
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.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Laziness
In the country of the blind the one eyed man is king.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Philosophy
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.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Good and Evil | Discontentment | Envy
Fools are without number.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Character | Foolishness
It’s the generally accepted privilege of theologians to stretch the heavens, that is the Scriptures, like tanners with a hide.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Theology
Fortune favors the audacious.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Finances
Great abundance of riches cannot be gathered and kept by any man without sin. Great eagerness in the pursuit of wealth, pleasure, or honor, cannot exist without sin.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Finances | Sin | Wealth
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
Children | Age | Enemies
Don’t give your advice before you are called upon.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Humility
Luther was guilty of two great crimes – he struck the Pope in his crown, and the monks in their belly.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Reasoning | Adversity
Concealed talent brings no reputation.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Apathy
Women, can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Women
When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Books | Money
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
Philosophy
Your library is your paradise.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Books
By burning Luther’s books you may rid your bookshelves of him, but you will not rid men’s minds of him.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Books | Reasoning
He who allows oppression shares the crime.
– Desiderius Erasmus
Crime