The nearer people approach old age the closer they return to a semblance of childhood, until the time comes for them to depart this life, again like children, neither tired of living nor aware of death.

He was a proponent of religious toleration and enjoyed the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists"; he has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists". Using humanist techniques for working on texts he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament. The exact year of his birth is debated with most biographers citing the year as 1467.

He also wrote The Praise of Folly Handbook of a Christian Knight On Civility in Children Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style Julius Exclusus and many other works. Desiderius was a self-adopted additional name which he used from 1496. In relation to clerical abuses in the Church Erasmus remained committed to reforming the Church from within.