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It has been
brought to my attention by a kind soul that I am somewhat misquoting Erasmus.
What he actually said, in the original Latin, was:
"Ad
Graecum literas totum animum applicui:
statimque ut pecuniam accepero,
Graecos primum Auctores,
deinde vestes imam."
The English
translation of this, according to The Collected Works of Erasmus
as quoted by that same kind soul, should read:
"I
have turned my entire attention to Greek. The first thing I shall do,
as soon as the money arrives, is buy some Greek authors; after that,
I shall buy clothes."
As I do
not know Latin, I will simply accept this translation and present it for
the information of those who have bothered to read this page.
I have opted
to let the quote stand as I originally wrote it for two reasons: First,
because this is how I originally saw the quote written, on a t-shirt in
a Signals or Wireless catalog (can't remember which). The second reason
is even more personal: I simply like it better this way! *grin*
But I am
grateful for the information, and thought a footnote would be appropriate,
so that others might share in it.
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