“Erasmus advises students to read only the best books on the subjects with which they are occupied. He cautions them against loading their memories with the errors of inferior writers which they will afterwards have to throw off and forget.”

— James Froude (1894), Life and Letters of Erasmus [1]

“You must acquire the best knowledge first, and without delay; it is the height of madness to learn what you will later have to unlearn.”

— Desiderius Erasmus (1497), “Letter to Christian Northoff” [2]

“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.”

— Desiderius Erasmus (1489), “Letter to unidentified friend” [2]

“In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”

— Desiderius Erasmus (1500), Publication (Ѻ)

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

— Desiderius Erasmus (1500), “Letter to Jacob Batt”, Apr 12; popularized variant (Ѻ) of original

“Could god have taken on the form of a woman, a devil, a donkey, a gourd, or a flintstone? If so, how could a gourd have preached sermons, performed miracles, and been nailed to the cross?”

— Desiderius Erasmus (1509), Praise of Folly [3]