“When I had money, I bought books, and when I had no money, clothes and food”;

“Women usually prefer men of the sort who are by nature more inclined to give themselves over to pleasures and all sorts of nonsense”;

“The one who was not taken seriously most often wins”;

“Only a few, whose base prosperity depends on the people’s misery, make wars”;

“No one can love another if he has not first loved himself… No one can hate anyone if he has not first hated himself”;

“If you make new friends, do not forget the old ones”;

“To have many friends is to have none”;

“Nothing hastens old age so much as immoderate drinking bouts, unbridled love and measureless lust”.

(Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466–1536) was a Dutch philosopher, thinker, theologian, writer, translator and teacher. Erasmus was one of the greatest scholars of the Northern Renaissance, called “the prince of the humanists”.

He prepared the first edition of the Greek original of the New Testament with commentary, laying the foundation for the critical study of the text of the Holy Scriptures. He helped return the literary heritage of antiquity to cultural use. He wrote mainly in Latin.

Having won all-European fame for his freedom-loving views, Erasmus did not accept the Reformation and at the end of his life argued sharply with Luther over the doctrine of free will, which many Protestants called into question.

Erasmus became friends with many humanists, especially Thomas More, author of the novel “Utopia”, and Prince Henry, the future King Henry VIII, when he travelled to England. During his third journey to England, after two years of travelling in Italy, Erasmus wrote his famous satire “In Praise of Folly”, a humorous work containing a paradoxical proof that in human life everything is ultimately subject to folly. Erasmus is also known as the author of the major work “On Free Will”.

Erasmus’s authority was great in Europe. His fame resounded from England to Italy and from Poland to Hungary, as a contemporary noted. The most powerful rulers of Europe of that time — Henry VIII of England, Francis I of France, popes, cardinals, prelates, statesmen and the most famous scholars — considered it an honour to correspond with him. The papal curia offered him a cardinalate; the Bavarian government expressed readiness to grant him a large pension merely for choosing Nuremberg as his permanent place of residence. During Erasmus’s travels, some cities gave him solemn receptions, as if he were a sovereign. He was called “the oracle of Europe”, and people sought his advice not only on scholarly and philosophical questions but also on political ones — not only scholars but statesmen and even rulers.

As a philosopher, Erasmus argued that man must strive day in and day out, without ceasing, towards virtue, towards the improvement and healing of his soul, relying on free will and trusting in grace. As a teacher, Erasmus said that a child’s inner world is a divine world and must not be treated with cruelty. He spoke out sharply against the cruelty of the medieval school, laying the foundation for a search for forms of upbringing that exclude violence. Erasmus was one of the first to speak of public education, advancing the idea that education must be compulsory for everyone.

Erasmus said that upbringing is the goal and instruction the means. The main thing in upbringing is a properly organised education. He believed that a child should be given a scientific education early, but should first be taught languages, to which a small child is very receptive, and that learning should be through play. In his view, in the process of learning the child and the teacher must treat each other with love, since “the first step in learning is love for the teacher”.)