Desiderius Erasmus

When I get a little money I buy books, and if any is left I buy food and clothes.

Give light and the darkness will disappear of itself.

Humility is truth.

Everybody hates a prodigy, detests an old head on young shoulders.

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

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

War is sweet to those who have not experienced it.

Man's mind is so formed that it is far more susceptible to falsehood than to truth.

The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war.

Whether a party can have much success without a woman present I must ask others to decide but one thing is certain no party is any fun unless seasoned with folly.

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?

By burning Luther's books you may rid your bookshelves of him but you will not rid men's minds of him.

Fools are without number.

I doubt if a single individual could be found from the whole of mankind free from some form of insanity. The only difference is one of degree. A man who sees a gourd and takes it for his wife is called insane because this happens to very few people.

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

Reflection is a flower of the mind giving out wholesome fragrance, but revelry is the same flower when rank and running to seed.

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.

In the country of the blind the one eyed man is king.

Women can't live with them can't live without them.

It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.