183 Quotes by Desiderius Erasmus

Apothegms are in history, the same as pearls in the sand, or gold in the mine.

It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.

Bidden or unbidden, God is present.

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.

There is nothing I congratulate myself on more heartily than on never having joined a sect.

Man is to man either a god or a wolf.

Providence has decreed that those common acquisitions, money, gems, plate, noble mansions, and dominion, should be sometimes bestowed on the indolent and unworthy; but those things which constitute our true riches, and which are properly our own, must be procured by our own labor.

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?

So our student will flit like a busy bee through the entire garden of literature, light on every blossom, collect a little nectar from each, and carry it to his hive...