...a kingdom is best entrusted to someone who is better endowed than the rest with the qualities of a king: namely wisdom, a sense of justice, personal restraint, foresight, and concern for the public well-being.

Name	Desiderius Erasmus
Life	1466 - 1536
Country	Holland
Category	Wisdom
Wikipedia	>>

Only stupid people have clear answers. Clear answers reveal folly. Intelligent people have always known how difficult it is to balance between the religious myths of Moses and the waterdrops of clearheaded Thales, between the idealism of Plato and the realism of Aristotle. Three solutions to this dilemma are well illustrated by three philosophers of the same age: Mirandola, born in 1463, Machiavelli in 1469, and Erasmus in 1465. You can pray. You can hate. And you can laugh! Mirandola chose to trust God's wisdom in man's God-like reason, praying it would moderate our bestial passions. Machiavelli saw only how, when the chips were down, bestial violence and smartness took over, leading to a viscous circle of hate. Erasmus Rotterdamus took the third position. He kept a high degree of idealism. His choice of rulers of kingdoms, here quoted, comes very close to Plato. At the same time, he came as close to Aristotle, and even to Machiavelli, in his analysis of how men really comport themselves. He couldn't stand, however, the ruthless cynicism of the Florentine. Instead he chose ridicule, a warm humorous presentation of the risible behavior of man. Erasmus made fun of the adrenalinomaniacal power-seekers, believing themselves to follow God-like reason. He unmasked reason to be a thin veil over their bestial passions. It is said that, in 1509, when staying with his friend Thomas More, the first serious Utopian, Erasmus wrote his satire on Moriae Encomium, Prais of Folly, in a week. He surely knew how dangerous it was not to kneel to the powerful. His friend More was beheaded

a few years later. Fools have a special gift, he says, "which is not to be despised. They're the only ones who speak frankly and tell the truth, and what is more praiseworthy than truth?" To soften his frankness, he adds, "witness Euripides famous line about me: 'for the fool speaks folly' ". He is harsh on businessmen and media. Of the former he says: "Most foolish of all, and the meanest, is the whole tribe of merchants, for they handle the meanest sort of business by the meanest methods, and although their lies, perjury, thefts, frauds and deceptions are everywhere to be found, they still reckon themselves a cut above everyone else simply because their fingers sport gold rings." Adding, about media: "there are plenty of sycophantic friars too, who will sing their praises and publicly address them as honorable, doubtless hoping that a morsel of these ill-gotten gains will come their way." Is that truth or folly? Or only folly to state the truth as clearly? Today, as well as 500 years ago? In sum, if you were sitting on the moon: "you'd think you saw a swarm of flies or gnats quarrelling amongst themselves, fighting, plotting, stealing, playing, making love, being born, growing old and dying. It's hard to believe how much trouble and tragedy this tiny little creature can stir up, short-lived as he is, for sometimes a brief war or an outbreak of plague can carry off and destroy many thousands at once." Erasmus lived in a happy age; the wars only carried off "many thousands"at once. In our time, he would have seen "many millions"! However difficult it may be to laugh at that, Erasmus' ridicule has one wonderful effect: tolerance. Prayers are often tied to exaggerated faith and lead to fanaticism. Hate leads inevitably to violence and murder. But ridicule leads only to mutual folly. And as fools, like me, don't know what they are doing, they must be tolerated!