Dingo the Dissident

THE BLOG OF DISQUIET : Qweir Notions, an uncommonplace-book from the Armpit of Diogenes, binge-thinker jottings since 2008 .

Sunday 19 April 2015

Erasmus wrote :

"Personally, in my sensible moments, I would not be any more pleased
at compliments from a friend than at being censured, even by an enemy,
so long as it was obviously not a matter of the cobbler not sticking to his last;
for compliments are nearly always harmful,
while adverse criticism is always beneficial.
If it is justified I learn from it, while if it should be wrong still I am sharpened, aroused, awakened, rendered more alert and cautious,
and emboldened to defend the truth.
Men are indeed spurred on less keenly by the longing for fame
than by the fear of disgrace."

- Letter 182 (to Christopher Fisher; March 1505; tr. R.A.B. Mynors and D.F.S. Thomson)

1 comment:

Jindra K. Hrdlička said...

I have passed these words of wisdom to my son...