Quotessence
Home / Authors / Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus Quotes

Theologian

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsWarPeopleAtheismFirstsFollyKnowsHumansBookGivingMayMindPositive AtheismUseWholeWisdomWiseAffairAge

Famous Desiderius Erasmus Quotes

“Be careful not to be the first to put your hands in the dish. What you cannot hold in your hands you must put on your plate. Also it is a great breach of etiquette when your fingers are dirty and greasy, to bring them to your mouth in order to lick them, or to clean them on your jacket. It would be more decent to use the tablecloth.”

FirstsUseHandsWould BeOrderFoodMouthsCookingCleanFingersCarefulDirtyDecentCulinaryBe CarefulPlatesDishesEtiquetteJacketsBreach
Author:Desiderius Erasmus
Create image

“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.”

PeopleFirstsSelfMatterSeemsEyeTogetherLawCausesDifficultOpinionClassTroubleSpecialRocksSixHundredClaimsBreathsProfessionLawyerSatisfiedMeritStringsRelevantGlossSisyphus
Author:Desiderius Erasmus
Create image

“Everyone knows that by far the happiest and universally enjoyable age of man is the first. What is there about babies which makes us hug and kiss and fondle them, so that even an enemy would give them help at that age?”

KnowsMenGivingFirstsHelpingAgeEnemyBabyKissingHugEnjoyableFirst Kiss
Book:Literary and Educational Writings: Panegyricus and Philippum Austriaeducem. Moriae encomium. Dialogus Julius exclusus e coelis. Institutio principis christiani. Querela pacis
Create image

“It hardly needs explaining at length, I think, how much authority or beauty is added to style by the timely use of proverbs. In the first place who does not see what dignity they confer on style by their antiquity alone?... And so to interweave adages deftly and appropriately is to make the language as a whole glitter with sparkles from Antiquity, please us with the colours of the art of rhetoric, gleam with jewel-like words of wisdom, and charm us with titbits of wit and humour.”

ThinkingNeedsFirstsDoeArtWholeUseLanguageStyleHumourWords Of WisdomPleaseAuthorityDignityWitCharmColourLengthRhetoricJewelsExplainingAdagesGlitterAntiquitySparkleGleamTimely
Author:Desiderius Erasmus
Create image