In Praise of Folly

of serious matters triflingly, so nothing carries a better grace than so to discourse of trifles as a man

may seem to have intended them least. For my own part, let other men judge of what I have written;

though yet, unless an overweening opinion of myself may have made me blind in my own cause,

I have praised folly, but not altogether foolishly. And now to say somewhat to that other cavil, of

biting. This liberty was ever permitted to all men’s wits, to make their smart, witty reflections on

the common errors of mankind, and that too without offense, as long as this liberty does not run

into licentiousness; which makes me the more admire the tender ears of the men of this age, that

can away with solemn titles. No, you’ll meet with some so preposterously religious that they will

Sooner endure the broadest scoffs even against Christ himself than hear the Pope or a prince be

touched in the least, especially if it be anything that concerns their profit; whereas he that so taxes

the lives of men, without naming anyone in particular, whither, I pray, may he be said to bite, or

rather to teach and admonish? Or otherwise, I beseech you, under how many notions do I tax myself?

Besides, he that spares no sort of men cannot be said to be angry with anyone in particular, but the

vices of all. And therefore, if there shall happen to be anyone that shall say he is hit, he will but

discover either his guilt or fear. Saint Jerome sported in this kind with more freedom and greater

sharpness, not sparing sometimes men’s very name. But I, besides that I have wholly avoided it, I

have so moderated my style that the understanding reader will easily perceive my endeavors herein

were rather to make mirth than bite. Nor have I, after the example of Juvenal, raked up that forgotten

sink of filth and ribaldry, but laid before you things rather ridiculous than dishonest. And now, if

there be anyone that is yet dissatisfied, let him at least remember that it is no dishonor to be

discommended by Folly; and having brought her in speaking, it was but fit that I kept up the character

of the person. But why do I run over these things to you, a person so excellent an advocate that no

man better defends his client, though the cause many times be none of the best? Farewell, my best

disputant More, and stoutly defend your Moriae.

From the country,

the 5th of the Ides of June.

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Desiderius Erasmus

In Praise of Folly

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THE PRAISE OF FOLLY

An oration, of feigned matter, spoken by Folly

in her own person

At what rate soever the world talks of me (for I am not ignorant what an ill report Folly has got,

even among the most foolish), yet that I am that she, that only she, whose deity recreates both gods

and men, even this is a sufficient argument, that I no sooner stepped up to speak to this full assembly

than all your faces put on a kind of new and unwonted pleasantness. So suddenly have you cleared

your brows, and with so frolic and hearty a laughter given me your applause, that in truth as many

of you as I behold on every side of me seem to me no less than Homer’s gods drunk with nectar

and nepenthe; whereas before, you sat as lumpish and pensive as if you had come from consulting

an oracle. And as it usually happens when the sun begins to show his beams, or when after a sharp

winter the spring breathes afresh on the earth, all things immediately get a new face, new color,

and recover as it were a certain kind of youth again: in like manner by but beholding me you have

in an instant gotten another kind of countenance; and so what the otherwise great rhetoricians with

their tedious and long-studied orations can hardly effect, to wit, to remove the trouble of the mind,

I have done it at once with my single look.

But if you ask me why I appear before you in this strange dress, be pleased to lend me your ears,

and I’ll tell you; not those ears, I mean, you carry to church, but abroad with you, such as you are

wont to prick up to jugglers, fools, and buffoons, and such as our friend Midas once gave to Pan.

For I am disposed awhile to play the sophist with you; not of their sort who nowadays boozle young

men’s heads with certain empty notions and curious trifles, yet teach them nothing but a more than

womanish obstinacy of scolding: but I’ll imitate those ancients who, that they might the better avoid

that infamous appellation of sophi or wise chose rather to be called sophists. Their business was

to celebrate the praises of the gods and valiant men. And the like encomium shall you hear from

me, but neither of Hercules nor Solon, but my own dear self, that is to say, Folly. Nor do I esteem

a rush that call it a foolish and insolent thing to praise one’s self. Be it as foolish as they would

make it, so they confess it proper: and what can be more than that Folly be her own trumpet? For

who can set me out better than myself, unless perhaps I could be better known to another than to

myself? Though yet I think it somewhat more modest than the general practice of our nobles and

wise men who, throwing away all shame, hire some flattering orator or lying poet from whose

mouth they may hear their praises, that is to say, mere lies; and yet, composing themselves with a

seeming modesty, spread out their peacock’s plumes and erect their crests, while this impudent

flatterer equals a man of nothing to the gods and proposes him as an absolute pattern of all virtue

that’s wholly a stranger to it, sets out a pitiful jay in other’s feathers, washes the blackamoor white,

and lastly swells a gnat to an elephant. In short, I will follow that old proverb that says, “He may

lawfully praise himself that lives far from neighbors.” Though, by the way, I cannot but wonder at

the ingratitude, shall I say, or negligence of men who, notwithstanding they honor me in the first

place and are willing enough to confess my bounty, yet not one of them for these so many ages has

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Desiderius Erasmus

In Praise of Folly

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