“Nothing in Excess”: Erasmus concludes that “there is nothing in the whole world in which one cannot go wrong by excess, except love of God, as Aristotle too admits in different words, putting wisdom in the place of God.”

Wisely Reading The Adages of Erasmus in Foolish Times

by Robert M. Woods

Over eighty proverb essays are presented here. Some are masterpieces of social criticism ('War is sweet to those who have never tried it'), others provide scholarly explanations of philosophical ideas or gestures and customs ('Thumbs up'). Many of the proverbs have passed into modern usage ('Know thyself' , To give someone the finger' 'Well begun is half done'), some even retaining their Latin form ('Deus ex machina'). And a few, it turns out, were created by Erasmus himself through his occasional misinterpretation of the ancient languages ('Pandora's box', 'To call a spade a spade').

The Adages can be enjoyed along with Erasmus’s Praise of Folly andColloquies.

The work demonstrates the unique genius of this prince of the Christian humanists. 

It demonstrates his scholarship and imaginative wit as he reflects on a range of Greek and Roman sources. 

An additional value of the adages is that Erasmus often provides philosophical and religious insight with social and political commentary.

It is stunning how relevant many of the adages are to our own time. 

Maybe it should not surprise us that this is true because human nature, being what it is, will produce scenarios where leaders and citizens are acting out the same comedy of errors as our human ancestors.

 Here are just a handful of the more than 4,000.

• To drive out one nail with another (on how solving problems may occur when placed next to similar problems)
• So many men, so many opinions (think “know it all pundits” and this one has modern application)
• You write in water (before there was a Tweet, which gave new meaning to wasting time, this adage conveyed that very notion)
• You are building on the sand (the call to seriously consider where we place our hope and confidence)
• The blind leading the blind (take virtually any political issue and this proverb comes alive)
• One swallow does not a summer make (a rousing call for character formation)
• To exact tribute from the dead (before the “death tax,” an indictment against usury and taxation)
• Time reveals all things (offering hope that even the follies of our moment will one day be revealed)

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