From: Praise of Folly, ch. 45 (1509)

"We should do all we can to do away with emotion and put reason it it's place."

"Man's mind is so formed that it is far more susceptible to falsehood than to truth." "It's the generally accepted privilege of theologians to stretch the heavens that is the Scriptures, like tanners with a hide'

Nature, more of a stepmother than a mother in several ways, has sown a seed of evil in the hearts of mortals, especially in the more thoughtful men, which makes them dissatisfied with their own lot and envious of another's

As an example of just how useless these philosophers are for any practice in life there is Socrates himself, the one and only wise man, according to the Delphic Oracle. Whenever he tried to do anything in public he had to break off amid general laughter. While he was philosophizing about clouds and ideas, measuring a flea's foot and marveling at a midge's humming, he learned nothing about the affairs of ordinary life

(Socrates was an elitist philosopher - practical philosophers are nearly too numerous to list -from Epicurus to Thoreau to James to Gandhi, and they have all made great contributions to mankind, just like Erasmus.)

He attacked corrupt church practices and the rationalist Scholasticism developed by churchmen, advocating a return to simple Christian ethics, based on Scripture. Because these works influenced religious reformers of the time, Erasmus is called the father of the Reformation.