„Der Körper kann ohne den Geist nicht bestehen, aber der Geist bedarf nicht des Körpers.“
Handbüchlein eines christlichen Streiters
Zitate von Erasmus von Rotterdam
14 3
Erasmus von Rotterdam
Geburtstag: 28. Oktober 1466
Todesdatum: 12. Juli 1536
Andere Namen: Gerrit Gerritszoon, Erazmus Rotterdamský
Desiderius Erasmus von Rotterdam CRSA war ein bedeutender niederländischer Gelehrter des Renaissance-Humanismus. Er war Theologe, Priester, Augustiner-Chorherr, Philologe und Autor zahlreicher Bücher.
Ihm zu Ehren wurden das Erasmus-Programm für Studenten in der Europäischen Union, der Erasmuspreis sowie weitere Institutionen und Dinge benannt.
Werk
Zitate Erasmus von Rotterdam
„Ich weiß nicht, ob jemand seinen Körper zur Gänze kennt. Und den Zustand seines Geistes soll jeder kennen?“
Handbüchlein eines christlichen Streiters
„Ist das menschliche Leben etwas anders, als ein Schauspiel, in welchem Jeder in einer besondern Larve auftritt, und so lange seine Rolle wegspielt, bis sein Principal zu ihm spricht: Tritt ab!“
Lob der Narrheit. Aus dem Lateinischen übersetzt von Wilhelm Gottlieb Becker. Basel: Johann Jacob Thurneysen, Jünger, 1780. S. 110.
„Du wäschst einen Mohren. Du bleichst einen Mohren. […] wird insbesondere verwendet, wenn eine unedle Sache mit blumigen Worten ausgeschmückt, ein Unlöblicher gelobt oder ein Unbelehrbarer belehrt wird.“
Adagiorum chiliades (Sprichwörtersammlung), 1.4.50
Original Latein: "Aethiopem lavas. Aethiopem dealbas. […] Hoc item peculiariter quadrabit, cum res parum honesta verborum fucis adornatur, aut cum laudatur illaudatus, aut docetur indocilis."
„Etwas anderes ist das Szepter, etwas anderes die Leier.“
Adagia 4,1,56
Original Latein: "Aliud sceptrum, aliud plectrum."
„Was in der Natur liegt, gilt nicht als Verdienst.“
Handbüchlein eines christlichen Streiters
„Je weniger wir Trugbilder bewundern, desto mehr vermögen wir die Wahrheit aufzunehmen.“
Handbüchlein eines christlichen Streiters
„Die Sanftmut macht uns empfänglich für den göttlichen Geist.“
Handbüchlein eines christlichen Streiters
„Der Umgang mit Büchern bringt die Leute um den Verstand.“
(Im entgegengesetzten Sinne gemeint)- Der Abt Antronius besucht Magdalia, 61 / Antronius
„Lieber Gott!“
Letzte Worte, 12. Juli 1536
Original niederl.: "Lieve God!"
„I have no patience with those who say that sexual excitement is shameful and that venereal stimuli have their origin not in nature, but in sin. Nothing is so far from the truth.“
In Praise of Marriage (1519), in Erasmus on Women (1996) Erika Rummel <!-- De Conscribendis Epistolas -->
Kontext: I have no patience with those who say that sexual excitement is shameful and that venereal stimuli have their origin not in nature, but in sin. Nothing is so far from the truth. As if marriage, whose function cannot be fulfilled without these incitements, did not rise above blame. In other living creatures, where do these incitements come from? From nature or from sin? From nature, of course. It must borne in mind that in the apetites of the body there is very little difference between man and other living creatures. Finally, we defile by our imagination what of its own nature is fair and holy. If we were willing to evaluate things not according to the opinion of the crowd, but according to nature itself, how is it less repulsive to eat, chew, digest, evacuate, and sleep after the fashion of dumb animals, than to enjoy lawful and permitted carnal relations?
„I doubt if a single individual could be found from the whole of mankind free from some form of insanity. The only difference is one of degree.“
As quoted in Words from the Wise : Over 6,000 of the Smartest Things Ever Said (2007) by Rosemarie Jarski, p. 312
Kontext: I doubt if a single individual could be found from the whole of mankind free from some form of insanity. The only difference is one of degree. A man who sees a gourd and takes it for his wife is called insane because this happens to very few people.
„There is always a suspicion of something wrong, and on the least complaint such a person is sent back.“
Letter to Lambertus Grunnius (August 1516), publised in Life and Letters of Erasmus : Lectures delivered at Oxford 1893-4 (1894) http://books.google.com/books?id=ussXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA180&lpg=PA180&dq=%22is+no+discipline+and+which+are+worse+than+brothels%22&source=bl&ots=PnJjrkSLNB&sig=JPY0PhTf2YgYwJlf3uH2eTvCJeA&hl=en&ei=BGwXTNqTA5XANu6_pJ8L&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22is%20no%20discipline%20and%20which%20are%20worse%20than%20brothels%22&f=false edited by James Anthony Froude, p. 180
Kontext: There are monasteries where there is no discipline, and which are worse than brothels — ut prae his lupanaria sint et magis sobria et magis pudica. There are others where religion is nothing but ritual; and these are worse than the first, for the Spirit of God is not in them, and they are inflated with self-righteousness. There are those, again, where the brethren are so sick of the imposture that they keep it up only to deceive the vulgar. The houses are rare indeed where the rule is seriously observed, and even in these few, if you look to the bottom, you will find small sincerity. But there is craft, and plenty of it — craft enough to impose on mature men, not to say innocent boys; and this is called profession. Suppose a house where all is as it ought to be, you have no security that it will continue so. A good superior may be followed by a fool or a tyrant, or an infected brother may introduce a moral plague. True, in extreme cases a monk may change his house, or even may change his order, but leave is rarely given. There is always a suspicion of something wrong, and on the least complaint such a person is sent back.
„There are others where religion is nothing but ritual; and these are worse than the first, for the Spirit of God is not in them, and they are inflated with self-righteousness.“
Letter to Lambertus Grunnius (August 1516), publised in Life and Letters of Erasmus : Lectures delivered at Oxford 1893-4 (1894) http://books.google.com/books?id=ussXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA180&lpg=PA180&dq=%22is+no+discipline+and+which+are+worse+than+brothels%22&source=bl&ots=PnJjrkSLNB&sig=JPY0PhTf2YgYwJlf3uH2eTvCJeA&hl=en&ei=BGwXTNqTA5XANu6_pJ8L&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22is%20no%20discipline%20and%20which%20are%20worse%20than%20brothels%22&f=false edited by James Anthony Froude, p. 180
Kontext: There are monasteries where there is no discipline, and which are worse than brothels — ut prae his lupanaria sint et magis sobria et magis pudica. There are others where religion is nothing but ritual; and these are worse than the first, for the Spirit of God is not in them, and they are inflated with self-righteousness. There are those, again, where the brethren are so sick of the imposture that they keep it up only to deceive the vulgar. The houses are rare indeed where the rule is seriously observed, and even in these few, if you look to the bottom, you will find small sincerity. But there is craft, and plenty of it — craft enough to impose on mature men, not to say innocent boys; and this is called profession. Suppose a house where all is as it ought to be, you have no security that it will continue so. A good superior may be followed by a fool or a tyrant, or an infected brother may introduce a moral plague. True, in extreme cases a monk may change his house, or even may change his order, but leave is rarely given. There is always a suspicion of something wrong, and on the least complaint such a person is sent back.
„But there is craft, and plenty of it — craft enough to impose on mature men, not to say innocent boys; and this is called profession.“
Letter to Lambertus Grunnius (August 1516), publised in Life and Letters of Erasmus : Lectures delivered at Oxford 1893-4 (1894) http://books.google.com/books?id=ussXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA180&lpg=PA180&dq=%22is+no+discipline+and+which+are+worse+than+brothels%22&source=bl&ots=PnJjrkSLNB&sig=JPY0PhTf2YgYwJlf3uH2eTvCJeA&hl=en&ei=BGwXTNqTA5XANu6_pJ8L&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22is%20no%20discipline%20and%20which%20are%20worse%20than%20brothels%22&f=false edited by James Anthony Froude, p. 180
Kontext: There are monasteries where there is no discipline, and which are worse than brothels — ut prae his lupanaria sint et magis sobria et magis pudica. There are others where religion is nothing but ritual; and these are worse than the first, for the Spirit of God is not in them, and they are inflated with self-righteousness. There are those, again, where the brethren are so sick of the imposture that they keep it up only to deceive the vulgar. The houses are rare indeed where the rule is seriously observed, and even in these few, if you look to the bottom, you will find small sincerity. But there is craft, and plenty of it — craft enough to impose on mature men, not to say innocent boys; and this is called profession. Suppose a house where all is as it ought to be, you have no security that it will continue so. A good superior may be followed by a fool or a tyrant, or an infected brother may introduce a moral plague. True, in extreme cases a monk may change his house, or even may change his order, but leave is rarely given. There is always a suspicion of something wrong, and on the least complaint such a person is sent back.
„If there is truth in the popular legend, that Antichrist will be born from a monk and a nun (which is the story these people keep putting about), how many thousands of Antichrists the world must have already!“
Responding to rumours prompted by the marriage of Martin Luther, in a letter to François Dubois (13 March 1526), as translated in The Correspondence of Erasmus : Letters 1658 to 1801, January 1526-March 1527 (1974) edited by Charles Garfield Nauert and Alexander Dalzell, p. 79
Paraphrased variant: They say that the Antichrist will be born of a monk and a nun. If so, there must already be thousands of Antichrists.
Kontext: There is no doubt about Martin Luther's marriage, but the rumour about his wife's early confinement is false; she is said however to be pregnant now. If there is truth in the popular legend, that Antichrist will be born from a monk and a nun (which is the story these people keep putting about), how many thousands of Antichrists the world must have already!
