A 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 Erasmus Dutch Priest More Desiderius Erasmus Quotes 0
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 Dutch Priest More Desiderius Erasmus Quotes 0
Do not get excited over the noise you have made. Desiderius Erasmus Dutch Priest More Desiderius Erasmus Quotes 0
A man must hug, and dandle, and kistle, and play a hundred little tricks with his bed-fellow when he is disposed to make that use of her that nature designed her for. Desiderius Erasmus Dutch Priest More Desiderius Erasmus Quotes 0
This type of man who is devoted to the study of wisdom is always most unlucky in everything, and particularly when it comes to procreating children; I imagine this is because Nature wants to ensure that the evils of wisdom shall not spread further throughout mankind. Desiderius Erasmus Dutch Priest More Desiderius Erasmus Quotes 0
Ask a wise man to dinner and he'll upset everyone by his gloomy silence or tiresome questions. Invite him to a dance and you'll have a camel prancing about. Haul him off to a public entertainment and his face will be enough to spoil the people's entertainment. Desiderius Erasmus Dutch Priest More Desiderius Erasmus Quotes 0
You'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 Erasmus Dutch Priest More Desiderius Erasmus Quotes 0
Jupiter, not wanting man's life to be wholly gloomy and grim, has bestowed far more passion than reason /you could reckon the ration as twenty-four to one. Moreover, he confined reason to a cramped corner of the head and left all the rest of the body to the passions. Desiderius Erasmus Dutch Priest More Desiderius Erasmus Quotes 0
People who use their erudition to write for a learned minority... don't seem to me favored by fortune but rather to be pitied for their continuous self-torture. They add, change, remove, lay aside, take up, rephrase, show to their friends, keep for nine years and are never satisfied. And their futile reward, a word of praise from a handful of people, they win at such a cost -- so many late nights, such loss of sleep, sweetest of all things, and so much sweat and anguish... their health deteriorates, their looks are destroyed, they suffer partial or total blindness, poverty, ill-will, denial of pleasure, premature old age and early death. Desiderius Erasmus Dutch Priest More Desiderius Erasmus Quotes 0
Amongst 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 Erasmus Dutch Priest More Desiderius Erasmus Quotes 0
Nothing 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 Erasmus Dutch Priest More Desiderius Erasmus Quotes 0