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Besides, it happens (how, I cannot tell) that an idea launched like a javelin in proverbial form strikes with sharper point on the hearer's mind and leaves implanted barbs for meditation.

Desiderius Erasmus

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Desiderius Erasmus
Age: 69 †
Born: 1466
Born: November 6
Died: 1536
Died: July 12
Bible Translator
Essayist
Latinist
Philosopher
Priest
Teacher
Theologian
Translator
University Teacher
R'dam
Erasmus of Rotterdam
Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus
Erasmus Von Rotterdam Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam
Erasmus von Rotterdam
Erasmus Rotterdam
Idea
Sharper
Tell
Proverbial
Happens
Launched
Cannot
Besides
Form
Strikes
Barbs
Ideas
Leaves
Javelin
Mind
Meditation
Hearer
Like
Point
Implanted

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I put up with this church, in the hope that one day it will become better, just as it is constrained to put up with me in the hope that I will become better.
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The nearer people approach old age the closer they return to a semblance of childhood, until the time comes for them to depart this life, again like children, neither tired of living nor aware of death.
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Out of all those centuries the Greeks can count seven sages at the most, and if anyone looks at them more closely I swear he'll not find so much as a half-wise man or even a third of a wise man among them.
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Great eagerness in the pursuit of wealth, pleasure, or honor, cannot exist without sin.
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It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.
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Prevention is better than cure.
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Man is to man either a god or a wolf.
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Now what else is the whole life of mortals, but a sort of comedy in which the various actors, disguised by various costumes and masks, walk on and play each ones part until the manager walks them off the stage?
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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.
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Time takes away the grief of men.
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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.
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Eagles don't catch flies.
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From hence, no question, has sprung an observation ... confirmed now into a settled opinion, that some long experienced souls in the world, before their dislodging, arrive to the height of prophetic spirits.
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Many times what cannot be refuted by arguments can be parried by laughter.
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I consider as lovers of books not those who keep their books hidden in their store-chests and never handle them, but those who, by nightly as well as daily use thumb them, batter them, wear them out, who fill out all the margins with annotations of many kinds, and who prefer the marks of a fault they have erased to a neat copy full of faults.
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It's the generally accepted privilege of theologians to stretch the heavens, that is the Scriptures, like tanners with a hide.
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Given a choice between a folly and a sacrament, one should always choose the folly—because we know a sacrament will not bring us closer to god and there’s always the chance that a folly will.
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Reflection is a flower of the mind, giving out wholesome fragrance but revelry is the same flower, when rank and running to seed.
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God has administered to us of the present age, a bitter draught and a harsh physician, on account of our abounding infirmities.
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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