Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) quotes

• A good portion of speaking will consist in knowing how to lie.
• A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit.
• By burning Luther's books you may rid your bookshelves of him, but you will not rid men's minds of him.
• Concealed talent brings no reputation.
• Don't give advice before you are called upon.
• Everybody hates a prodigy, detests an old head on young shoulders.
• Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.
• Great abundance of riches cannot be gathered and kept by any man without sin.
• He who allows oppresion shares the crime.
• 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.
• In the country of the blind the one eyed man is king.
• Luther was guilty of two great crimes; he struck the Pope in his crown, and the monks in their belly.
• Nowadays the rage for possession has got to such a pitch that there is nothing in the realm of nature, whether sacred or profane, out of which profit cannot be squeezed.
• 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.
• Time takes away the grief of men.
• When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.