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Quote by Desiderius Erasmus

Work

The Praise of Folly

Written in the 16th century, this work is a critical examination of human folly, offering insights into the absurdities and vices of society. The author employs satire and irony to critique the values and behaviors of their time, providing a timeless perspective on the human condition. more

Author

Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus was a Dutch humanist, scholar, and theologian who played a pivotal role in the Northern Renaissance. He is renowned for his scholarly contributions, particularly his translation of the New Testament into Latin and his commentary on the Bible. Erasmus was a critic of the Church and a proponent of reform, making him a controversial figure in his era. more

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“Being poor is not simply a matter of lacking opportunities to convert one's labor into a wage--or a living wage, for that matter--but rather of becoming indebted and, through the commodification of these debts, paying an ever-higher price for being poor.”

“Tilly would need a new environment, and good people around her. She had nowhere to go really. They’d seen enough addiction to know coming back to the same didn’t work anyway. But it would be good for her to get back into school somehow, especially since she’d been doing her last years of schooling and was doing alright from all accounts. “She’s a state ward. You could be her guardian? If she agrees? If we can get her at a boarding school or hostel or something? Then you’d only need to have her here in the holidays, maybe?” She might get a residential place at one of the boarding schools. Something. If she could rest, if she recovered, if she wanted.”

“In the 1960's, Labour had gained some power, or at least respectability. Spokesmen for the working class - but of course not necessarily coming from that class or belonging there except through ideology - were upset by the exposed inequalities and abuses disguised as treatment. It did not exactly strengthen the credibility of these measures that most receivers of this type of treatment for crime turned out to belong to just those classes supposed to be in political power.”

“Immobility results when people end up trapped by the social circumstances into which they are born: the networks in which they are embedded fail to provide them with the information and opportunities that they need to succeed.”

“In these pages, we have made propositions to meet those challenges: a sharply progressive wealth tax to curb the forms of rent extraction associated with extreme and entrenched wealth, an effective taxation of globe-straddling companies to reconcile globalization with tax justice, a national income tax to fund the modern social state and alleviate the crushing cost of health care.”