Here the ever bold lady Folly makes her irrefutable claim to be the source of life. Yet another brazen statement by this folly goddess. And the basis for her argument is that human life is created with a set of laughable organs.
I create life. In the first place, what can be more agreeable or more precious than life itself? Who is it, though, that’s generally credited with originating life? Isn’t it me? … The reproducer of the human race is the organ that’s so foolish and laughable that it can’t be mentioned without a guffaw: that is the sacred spring from which all things draw life, that and not Pythagoras’s set of four numbers.
See what she has to say about the pitfalls of power, why rulers can’t live without fools, and how folly pays you a compliment.
This timeless masterpiece will soon take its place in the Fools’ Canon.
Source: Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536), Praise of Folly, trans. Roger Clarke (Richmond: Oneworld Classics, 2008 (1511)), pp. 13-14
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