Laudator Temporis Acti

Erasmus, letter 180 (to Joannes Paludanus, i.e. John Desmarais; February 1504; tr. R.A.B. Mynors and D.F.S. Thomson):

For your encomiast is positively a nuisance unless his qualifications are exceptional, whereas the hostile critic, even if he is no expert, either reminds one of something one has forgotten, or provokes one to defend what is well expressed, and so either improves the author's knowledge or at least increases his alertness; thus I am quite sure that I should in my right mind prefer a single mocking Momus to ten Polyhymnias.

The Latin, from Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami, ed. P.S. Allen, tom. I: 1484-1514 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906; rpt. 1992), p. 398:

Nam laudator, nisi eximie doctus, officit quoque; at reprehensor etiam parum eruditus aut admonet quod te suffugerit, aut ad defensionem recte dictorum expergefacit, et aut doctiorem facit aut certe reddit attentiorem. Proinde dispeream nisi mihi Momum vnum malim sanus quam decem Polyhymnias.

Erasmus, letter 182 (to Christopher Fisher; March 1505; tr. R.A.B. Mynors and D.F.S. Thomson):

Personally, in my sensible moments, I would not be any more pleased at compliments from a friend than at being censured, even by an enemy, so long as it was obviously not a matter of the cobbler not sticking to his last; for compliments are nearly always harmful, while adverse criticism is always beneficial. If it is justified I learn from it, while if it should be wrong still I am sharpened, aroused, awakened, rendered more alert and cautious, and emboldened to defend the truth. Men are indeed spurred on less keenly by the longing for fame than by the fear of disgrace.

The Latin, from Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami, ed. P.S. Allen, tom. I: 1484-1514 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906; rpt. 1992), p. 408:

Mihi quidem sano non gratior sit amicus applausor quam vel inimicus repraehensor, dum ne plane sutor vltra crepidam. Nam vt nunquam fere non nocet laudator, ita semper prodest repraehensor. Etenim si vere repraehendit, discedo doctior; sin falso, tamen acuor, extimulor, expergefio, reddor attentior cautiorque, animor ad defensionem veri. Siquidem minus acre calcar habet gloriae cupiditas quam ignominiae metus.