“You venerate the saints, and you take pleasure in touching their relics. But you disregard their greatest legacy, the example of a blameless life. No devotion is more pleasing to Mary than the imitation of Mary's humility. No devotion is more acceptable and proper to the saints than striving to imitate their virtues.”

—  Desiderius Erasmus

The Erasmus Reader (1990), p. 144.
Handbook of the Christian Soldier (1503)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "You venerate the saints, and you take pleasure in touching their relics. But you disregard their greatest legacy, the e…" by Desiderius Erasmus?
Desiderius Erasmus photo
Desiderius Erasmus 36
Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and theologian 1466–1536

Related quotes

Oscar Wilde photo

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.”

Oscar Wilde book The Decay of Lying

The Decay of Lying (1889)

Théodore Guérin photo

“Let us never forget that if we wish to die like the Saints we must live like them. Let us force ourselves to imitate their virtues, in particular humility and charity.”

Théodore Guérin (1798–1856) Catholic saint and nun from France

Letter to Sisters at Saint Mary's, 1848.

Martin Luther photo

“Furthermore, how will you endure [the Romanists'] terrible idolatries? It was not enough that they venerated the saints and praised God in them, but they actually made them into gods. They put that noble child, the mother Mary, right into the place of Christ. They fashioned Christ into a judge and thus devised a tyrant for anguished consciences, so that all comfort and confidence was transferred from Christ to Mary, and then everyone turned from Christ to his particular saint. Can anyone deny this? Is it not true?”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

Luther's Works, 47:45; cf. also Anderson, Stafford & Burgess (1992), p. 29

Oscar Wilde photo

“Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
André Maurois photo

“Not all men and women can devote themselves to those whom they respect. Some are jealous of superiority and are far more interested in revealing the faults than in imitating the virtues of a noble character. Others fear the option of a mind that is too lucid and prefer to be friends with someone less exacting.”

André Maurois (1885–1967) French writer

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Friendship

“Example has more followers than reason. We unconsciously imitate what pleases us, and insensibly approximate to the characters we most admire. In this way, a generous habit of thought and of action carries with it an incalculable influence.”

Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American writer

Volume I, p. 178; reported in Otis Henry Tiffany, Gems for the Fireside (1883), p. 809.
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought (1862), Volume I

Thomas Brooks photo

“Though there is nothing more dangerous, yet there is nothing more ordinary, than for weak saints to make their sense and feeling the judge of their condition. We must strive to walk by faith.”

Thomas Brooks (1608–1680) English Puritan

Source: Quotes from secondary sources, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, 1895, P. 245.

“There is an affected humility more unsufferable than downright pride, as hypocrisy is more abominable than libertimsm. Take care that your virtues be genuine and unsophisticated.”

James Burgh (1714–1775) British politician

The Dignity of Human Nature (1754)

Henry Adams photo

“A Church which embraced, with equal sympathy, and within a hundred years, the Virgin, Saint Bernard, William of Champeaux and the School of Saint Victor, Peter the Venerable, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Dominic, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and Saint Bonaventure, was more liberal than any modern state can afford to be. Radical contradictions the State may perhaps tolerate, but never embrace or profess. Such elasticity long ago vanished from human thought.”

Henry Adams (1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist

Mont Saint Michel and Chartres (1904)

Frederick Winslow Taylor photo

“I think no book is more stimulating than the history of a devoted and successful life.”

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856–1915) American mechanical engineer and tennis player

F.W. Taylor (1911) in letter to John Fritz, who just published his autobiography; Cited in: Frank Barkley Copley, Frederick W. Taylor, father of scientific management https://archive.org/stream/frederickwtaylor01copl, 1923. p. v.

Related topics