Erasmus

Erasmus was born with the name Gerrit Gerritszoon (Dutch for Gerhard Gerhardson) in or about 1466, probably in Rotterdam. Although associated closely with this city, he lived there for only four years, never to return. Information on his family and early life comes mainly from vague references in his writings. He was almost certainly illegitimate. His father later became a priest named Roger Gerard. Little is known of his mother other than her name was Margaret and she was the daughter of a physician. Despite being illegitimate, Erasmus was cared for by his parents until their early deaths from the plague in 1483 and was then given the best education available to a young man of his day, in a series of monastic or semi-monastic schools. While at a Augustinian monetary at Steyn around 1487, Erasmus fell in love with a fellow monk, Servatius Rogerus, whom he called "half my soul", writing, "I have wooed you both unhappily and relentlessly.

"Ordination and monastic experience. In 1492, he was ordained to the Catholic priesthood and reluctantly took vows as an Augustinian canon at about the age of 25, but he never seems to have actively worked as a priest, and monasticism was one of the chief objects of his attack in his lifelong assault upon Church excesses. Soon after his priestly ordination, he got his chance to leave the monastery when offered the post of secretary to the Bishop of Cambray, Henry of Bergen, on account of his great skill in Latin and his reputation as a man of letters. He was given a temporary dispensation due to his poor health, dislike of monks and love of humanistic studies. Pope Leo X later made the dispensation permanent.

Some of His Adages:
Make haste slowly.
One step at a time
You're in the same boat.
To lead one by the nose
A rare bird
Even a child can see it.
To have one foot in Charon's boat (we now say "...in the grave")
To walk on tiptoe
One to one
Out of tune
A point in time
I gave as bad as I got (we reversed it to "good", even though we mean "bad")
To call a spade a spade
Hatched from the same egg
Up to both ears (we use "up to his eyeballs")
As though in a mirror
Think before you start
What's done cannot be undone
Many parasangs ahead (we say, "miles ahead")
We cannot all do everything
Many hands make light work
A living corpse
Where there's life, there's hope
To cut to the quick
Time reveals all things
Golden handcuffs
Crocodile tears
To show the middle finger (yes, it meant the same thing back then)
You have touched the issue with a needle-point (we say, you have nailed it)
To walk the tightrope
Time tempers grief (we say, time heals all wounds)
With a fair wind
To dangle the bait
To swallow the hook
The bowels of the earth
From heaven to earth
The dog is worthy of his dinner
To weigh anchor
To grind one's teeth
Nowhere near the mark
Complete the circle
In the land of the blind, one eyed man is king
A cough for a fart (To attempt to cover up an error)
No sooner said than done
Neither with bad things nor without them (Women: can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em)Between a stone and a shrine. (between a rock and a hard place)
Like teaching an old man a new language (Can't teach an old dog new tricks)