Quote of the day

Good old Desiderius Erasmus. He's very quotable. He published a book of adages from Greek and Latin, many of which have become commonplace in English cos of him. He said such good things as 'When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes' and 'I am a lover of liberty. I will not and I cannot serve a party.'

Here's a doozy from a little book called In praise of folly:

Since the human race insists on being completely crazy – since everybody from the Pope down to the humblest of village priests – from the richest of men to the most miserable of paupers – from the fine lady in her silks down to the slut in her calico dressing-gown – since the whole world has firmly set its heart against using its God-given brain but insists upon letting itself be entirely guided by its greed, its vanity, and its ignorance, why in the name of a reasonable Deity should the few truly intelligent people waste so much of their time and their effort in trying to change the human race into something it never wanted to be?

Quite fucking right. Words to live by.