Desiderius Erasmus Quotes
There are some whose only reason for inciting war is to use it as a means to exercise their tyranny over their subjects more easily. For in times of peace the authority of the assembly, the dignity of the magistrates, the force of the laws stand in the way to some extent of the ruler doing what he likes. But once war is declared then the whole business of state is subject to the will of a few ... They demand as much money as they like. Why say more?
Erasmus, Desiderius. The Education of a Christian Prince. Translated by Neil M. Cheshire and Michael J. Heath, edited by Lisa Jardine, Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 106.
The Priest was the right wing demagogic radio host of his day. Virulently anti-Semitic and anti-Black, he was threatened with excommunication by the Catholic Church, which finally ordered him to cease us weekly radio show and stop the political hate.
Description of the Mexican Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which ruled Mexico for 71 straight years.
Nine years later he was responsible for Napoleon’s election as Consul.
Napoleon had been a great supporter of Napoleon, but had become disillusioned.
Arguing the need to limit the power of the legislature:
See Louis Brandeis for a later judicial interpretation of this view.
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.
