Desiderius Erasmus Quotes
Only a very few can be learned, but all can be Christian, all can be devout, and – I shall boldly add – all can be theologians.
Erasmus, Desiderius. Christian Humanism and the Reformation: Selected Writings of Erasmus. Edited by John C. Olin, Fordham University Press, 1987, p. 104.
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus was a Dutch philosopher and Christian scholar who is widely considered to have been one of the greatest scholars of the northern Renaissance. As a Catholic priest, Erasmus was an important figure in classical scholarship who wrote in a pure Latin style. Among humanists he enjoyed the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists", and has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists". Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament, which raised questions that would be influential in the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. He also wrote On Free Will, In Praise of Folly, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style, Julius Exclusus, and many other works.
