Quote by Desiderius Erasmus: “It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.”

Contentment with who you actually are — not who you wish you were or who others want you to be — is the real foundation of a happy life. Erasmus places this insight in the mouth of Folly, his satirical narrator, with knowing irony.

In Praise of Folly was written in 1509 and published in 1511, during Erasmus's stay with Thomas More in England. The book used irony and satire to criticise church corruption and human vanity, smuggling serious philosophical points inside a comic persona.

Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and the most celebrated scholar of his age. His works, including In Praise of Folly and his critical edition of the Greek New Testament, combined scholarship with wit and pushed for church reform from within.