From The Praise of Folly (1509)
The same holy person [St. Paul] does yet enjoin and command the being a fool, as a virtue of all others most requisite and necessary: for, says he “If any man seem to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise.” . . . Nor may this seem strange in comparison to what is yet farther delivered by St. Paul, who adventures to attribute something of Folly even to the all-wise God himself. “The foolishness of God (says he) is wiser than men.” . . . So our Saviour in like manner dislikes and condemns the wise and crafty, as St. Paul does expressly declare in these words, “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world”; and again, “it pleased God by foolishness to save the world”; implying that by wisdom it could never have been saved. . . . To the same purpose did our blessed Lord frequently condemn and upbraid the scribes, pharisees, and lawyers, while he carries himself kind and obliging to the unlearned multitude.
