Desiderius Erasmus

“Luther was guilty of two great crimes - he struck the Pope in his crown, and the monks in their belly.”

“In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”

“Fools are without number.”

“Great abundance of riches cannot be gathered and kept by any man without sin.”

“Time takes away the grief of men.”

“It is wisdom in prosperity, when all is as thou wouldn't have it, to fear and suspect the worst.”

“There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.”

“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?”

“A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit.”

“The more ignorant, reckless and thoughtless a doctor is, the higher his reputation soars even amongst powerful princes.”

“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.”

“Your library is your paradise.”

“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.”

“By a Carpenter mankind was made, and only by that Carpenter can mankind be remade.”

“He who allows oppression shares the crime.”

“Prevention is better than cure.”

“It's the generally accepted privilege of theologians to stretch the heavens, that is the Scriptures, like tanners with a hide.”

“It is an unscrupulous intellect that does not pay to antiquity its due reverence.”

“Great eagerness in the pursuit of wealth, pleasure, or honor, cannot exist without sin.”

“Nothing is as peevish and pedantic as men's judgments of one another.”