Erasmus
Humanist scholar
Sayings by Erasmus
It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.
The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea.
The study of Greek is a necessary evil.
The world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
It is the nature of the ignorant to be always dogmatic.
A man who is afraid of nothing is a man who is afraid of nothing.
The common people are always fickle.
It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
What is the whole life of mortals but a sort of comedy, in which various persons, disguised in various costumes and masks, walk about and play each one his part, until at last the producer gives the sign for them to leave the stage?
For in their own eyes they are like the gods, and look down on other mortals with contempt.
But if anyone thinks that it is a foolish thing to be wise, let him be advised that it is a much more foolish thing to be foolish.
It is characteristic of a wise man to know his own ignorance.
The highest form of love is to be the love of God.
A good part of the art of living consists in knowing how to suffer.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
The one thing that is more important than learning is to live.
Fools learn by experience. I prefer to learn by the experience of others.
To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it.
By a happy fatality, the greater part of mankind, being unable to get wisdom, enjoy instead a kind of folly that is next door to it.
The most effective way to be happy is to not desire anything.