Cervantes Saavedra Quotes

I do not insist," answered Don Quixote, "that this is a full adventure, but it is the beginning of one, for this is the way adventures begin. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Where envy reigns virtue can't exist, and generosity doesn't go with meanness. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Senor, a large river separated two districts of one and the same lordship - will your worship please to pay attention, for the case is an important and a rather knotty one? Well then, on this river there was a bridge, and at one end of it a gallows, and a sort of tribunal, where four judges commonly sat to administer the law which the lord of river, bridge and the lordship had enacted, and which was to this effect, 'If anyone crosses by this bridge from one side to the other he shall declare on oath where he is going to and with what object; and if he swears truly, he shall be allowed to pass, but if falsely, he shall be put to death for it by hanging on the gallows erected there, without any remission.' Though the law and its severe penalty were known, many persons crossed, but in their declarations it was easy to see at once they were telling the truth, and the judges let them pass free. It happened, however, that one man, when they came to take his declaration, swore and said that by the oath he took he was going to die upon that gallows that stood there, and nothing else. The judges held a consultation over the oath, and they said, 'If we let this man pass free he has sworn falsely, and by the law he ought to die; but if we hang him, as he swore he was going to die on that gallows, and therefore swore the truth, by the same law he ought to go free.' It is asked of your worship, senor governor, what are the judges to do with this man? For they are still in doubt and perple ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

And the first thing I have got to say is, that for my own part I hold my master Don Quixote to be stark mad, though sometimes he says things that, to my mind, and indeed everybody's that listens to him, are so wise, and run in such a straight furrow, that Satan himself could not have said them better; but for all that, really, and beyond all question, it's my firm belief he is cracked. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Whoever undertakes a long journey, if he be wise, makes it his business to find out an agreeable companion. How cautious then should he be, who is to take a journey for life, whose fellow-traveler must not part with him but at the grave; his companion at bed and board and sharer of all the pleasures and fatigues of his journey, as the wife must be to the husband! She is no such sort of ware, that a man can be rid of when he pleases: when once that is purchased, no exchange, no sale, no alienation can be made. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The village to sell (saving your presence) four pigs, and between dues and cribbings they got out of me little less than the worth of them. As ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The poor gentleman has no way of showing that he is a gentleman but by virtue, by being affable, well-bred, courteous, gentle-mannered, and kindly, not haughty, arrogant, or censorious, but above all by being charitable; for by two maravedis given with a cheerful heart to the poor, he will show himself as generous as he who distributes alms with bell-ringing, and no one that perceives him to be endowed with the virtues I have named, even though he know him not, will fail to recognise and set him down as one of good blood; and it would be strange were it not so; praise has ever been the reward of virtue, and those who are virtuous cannot fail to receive commendation. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

A king's crumb is worth more than a lord's loaf." 'This ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

At this point they came in sight of thirty forty windmills that there are on plain, and as soon as Don Quixote saw them he said to his squire, "Fortune is arranging matters for us better than we could have shaped our desires ourselves, for look there, friend Sancho Panza, where thirty or more monstrous giants present themselves, all of whom I mean to engage in battle and slay, and with whose spoils we shall begin to make our fortunes; for this is righteous warfare, and it is God's good service to sweep so evil a breed from off the face of the earth." "What giants?" said Sancho Panza. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

After the gratifications of brutish appetites are past, the greatest pleasure then is to get rid of that which entertained it. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

In short, to sum up all in a few words, or in a single one, I may tell you I am Don Quixote of La Mancha, otherwise called 'The Knight of the Rueful Countenance;' for though self-praise is degrading, I must perforce sound my own sometimes, that is to say, when there is no one at hand to do it for me. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Many people go looking for wool and come back shorn. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Can there be hope where fear is? Were it well,
When far more certain are the grounds of fear?
Ought I to shut mine eyes to jealousy,
If through a thousand heart-wounds it appears? ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Also saw that the number of simpleminded men is greater than that of the prudent, and though it is better to be praised by a few wise men and mocked by many fools, ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

This is a fault incident to all those who presume to translate books of verse into another language. For, however much care they take and however much ability they employ, they can never equal the quality of the original. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Scholarship without virtue is like pearls pearls ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The praise of the wise few is more important than the mockery of the foolish many, ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

How is it possible that things so trivial and so easy to remedy can have the power to perplex and absorb an intelligence as mature as yours, and one so ready to demolish and pass over much greater difficulties? ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Ye love-smitten host, know that to Dulcinea only I am dough and sugar-paste, flint to all others; for her I am honey, for you aloes. For ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Thou knowest that my voice is sweet, That is if thou dost hear; And I am moulded in a form Somewhat below the mean. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Great hearts, my dear master, should be patient in misfortune as well as joyful in prosperity. And this I judge from myself. For if I was merry when I was Governor now that I'm a squire on foot I'm not sad, for I've heard tell that Fortune, as they call her, is a drunken and capricious woman and, worse still, blind; and so she doesn't see what she's doing, and doesn't know whom she is casting down or raising up. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

He is most blessed who loves the most, the freest who is most enslaved by love, ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

I know who I am and who I may be, if I choose. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

If all, or almost all, the plays that are popular now, imaginative works as well as historical ones, are known to be nonsense and without rhyme or reason, and despite this the mob hears them with pleasure and thinks of them and approves of them as good, when they are very far from being so, and the authors who compose them and the actors who perform them say they must be like this because that is just how the mob wants them, and no other way; the plays that have a design and follow the story as art demands appeal to a handful of discerning persons who understand them, while everyone else is incapable of comprehending their artistry; and since, as far as the authors and actors are concerned, it is better to earn a living with the crowd than a reputation with the elite, this is what would happen to my book after I had singed my eyebrows trying to keep the precepts I have mentioned and had become the tailor who wasn't paid. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Wit and humor do not reside in slow minds. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The wounds received in battle bestow honor, they do not take it away ... ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Until death it is all life ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Secondly, thou must keep in view what thou art, striving to know thyself, the ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Although this is poetic fiction, it contains hidden moral truths worthy of being heeded and understood and imitated, ... ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

I swear to hold my tongue about it till the end of your worship's days, and God grant I may be able to let it out tomorrow ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Lifting up his hand to her, he said, Here, madam, take the hand, or rather, as I may say, the executioner of all earthy miscreants-take, I say, that hand which never woman touched before; no, not even she herself who has entire possession of my whole body; nor do I hold it up to you that you may kiss it, but that you may observe the contexture of the sinews, the ligament of the muscles, and the largeness and dilation of the veins; whence you may conclude how strong that arm must be to which such a hand is joined. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Every man is the child of his own deeds ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Since then the romances of chivalry had been superseded by the flowering of literature that we know as the Spanish Golden Age, and by Cervantes's time nobody considered them to be a threat any more. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

But one of shallow wit, somewhat like a saltshaker with very little salt. In ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

He who's down one day can be up the next, unless he really wants to stay in bed, that is ... ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Seated on his horse, resting in his stirrups and leaning on the end of his lance, filled with sad and troubled forebodings; ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

To dream the impossible dream, that is my quest. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

It seems to me a hard case to make slaves of those whom God and nature have made free. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

He'd just fallen off a rock and got a little bit spifflicated in the ribs. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The book depicts thoughts, unveils imaginings, answers unspoken questions, clarifies doubts, resolves arguments, and finally reveals the very atoms of the most curiosity-driven desire. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

It is never my custom to plunder those I over come. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

In the worst of circumstances, the hypocrite who pretends to be good does less harm than the public sinner. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

There is no book so bad ... that it does not have something good in it. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Nay, what is even worse, he may become a poet, which they say is an incurable and infectious disease." "This ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

I am not in the habit', said Don Quixote, 'of despoiling those whom I vanquish, nor is it a custom of chivalry to take their horses and leave them on foot, unless the victor has lost his own horse in the fray, in which case it is legitimate to take the defeated knight's horse, as a prize won in lawful war. And so, Sancho, leave that horse, or donkey, or whatever you want to call it, for as soon as its master sees that we have gone he will return for it.'
God knows I'd love to take it', replied Sancho, 'or at least swap it for mine, because I don't think mine's such a good one. These laws of chivalry are really strict, if they won't even stretch to letting you swap one donkey for another - could you please tell me if I can at least swap the tackle?'
I am not very clear about that', replied Don Quixote, 'and as it is a doubtful case, I should say that until I am better informed you can swap it, if your need is very great.'
It's so great', said Sancho, 'that if I'd wanted the tackle to wear it myself I couldn't have needed it more.'
And, now that he'd been granted official permission, he performed his mutatio capparum and refurbished his donkey. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The reason of the unreasonableness which against my reason is wrought, doth so weaken my reason, as with all reason I do justly complain on your beauty. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

And many folks think there's bacon when there's not even a hook to hang it on. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

But our depraved age does not deserve to enjoy such a blessing as those ages enjoyed when knights-errant took upon their shoulders the defence of kingdoms, the protection of damsels, the succour of orphans and minors, the chastisement of the proud, and the recompense of the humble. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

With these meager scraps of Latin and the like, you may perhaps be taken for a scholar, which is honorable and profitable these days. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The Panza is here," said Sancho, before anyone could reply, "and Don Quixotissimus too; and so, most distressedest Duenissima, you may say what you willissimus, for we are all readissimus to do you any servissimus. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Thy enterprises speed, Didst thou the light mid Libya's sands Or Jaca's rocks first see? ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

In a village of La Mancha, ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

You should know, Sancho, that a man is not worth more than any other if he does not do more than any other. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the sum of his own works. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Everyone is as God has made him, and oftentimes a great deal worse. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

[W]omen are born with the obligation to obey their husbands even if they're fools. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

I want you to see me naked and performing one or two dozen mad acts, which will take me less than half an hour, because if you have seen them with your own eyes, you can safely swear to any others you might wish to add. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Oh Senor" said the niece. "Your grace should send them to be burned (books), just like all the rest, because it's very likely that my dear uncle, having been cured of the chivalric disease, will read these and want to become a shepherd and wander through the woods and meadows singing and playing and, what would be even worse, become a poet, and that, they say, is an incurable and contagious disease. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

We know already ample experience that it does not require much cleverness or much learning to be a governor, for there are a hundred round about us that scarcely know how to read. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Ah, senor!" said the niece, "your worship had better order these to be burned as well as the others; for it would be no wonder if, after being cured of his chivalry disorder, my uncle, by reading these, took a fancy to turn shepherd and range the woods and fields singing and piping; or, what would be still worse, to turn poet, which they say is an incurable and infectious malady. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Laughter distances us from that which is ugly and therefore potentially distressing, and indeed enables us to obtain paradoxical pleasure and therapeutic benefit from it. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The journey is better than the inn". ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Don't you be worried or annoyed, Sancho, about any comments you hear, or there will never be an end to them. Keep a safe conscience and let people say what they like: trying to still gossips' tongues is like putting up doors in open fields. If the governor leaves office rich they say he's a thief, and if he leaves it poor they say he's a milksop and a fool. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

All the vices, Sancho, bring some kind of pleasure with them; but envy brings nothing but irritation, bitterness, and rage. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

( ... ) and it will be easier, remember, to bend thy will to love one who adores thee, than to lead one to love thee who abhors thee now. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

In the shadow of feigned cripples and false wounds come the strong arms of thieves and very healthy drunkards. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

That is the nature of women," said Don Quixote. "They reject the man who loves them and love the man who despises them. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

for a knight-errant without love was like a tree without leaves or fruit, or a body without a soul. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

What man can pretend to know the riddle of a woman's mind? ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Men have to have friends even in hell. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Another thing to strive for: reading your history should move the melancholy to laughter, increase the joy of the cheerful, not irritate the simple, fill the clever with admiration for its invention, not give the serious reason to scorn it, and allow the prudent to praise it. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Remember that there are two kinds of beauty: one of the soul and the other of the body. That of the soul displays its radiance in intelligence, in chastity, in good conduct, in generosity, and in good breeding, and all these qualities may exist in an ugly man. And when we focus our attention upon that beauty, not upon the physical, love generally arises with great violence and intensity. I am well aware that I am not handsome, but I also know that I am not deformed, and it is enough for a man of worth not to be a monster for him to be dearly loved, provided he has those spiritual endowments I have spoken of. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

It is the privilege and charm of beauty to win the heart and secure good-will, ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The man who fights for his ideals is the man who is alive. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Let his sin be his punishment, let him eat it with his bread, and let that be an end to it. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

And letting out thirty groans and sixty sighs and one hundred and twenty curses on the head of the person who'd brought him there, he hauled himself to his feet, ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

( ... ) rest content and satisfied that as you are caught in the noose of love it is one of worth and merit that has taken you, and one that has not only the the four S's that they say true lovers ought to have, but a complete alphabet; only listen to me and you will see how I can repeat it by rote. He is to my eyes and thinking, Amiable, Brave, Courteous, Distinguished, Elegant, Fond, Gay, Honorable, Illustrious, Loyal, Manly, Noble, Open, Polite, Quickwitted, Rich, and the S's according to the saying, and then Tender, Veracious: X does not suite him, for it is a rough letter; Y has been given already; and Z Zealous for your honour. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Facts, my dear Sancho, are the enemy of truth. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

When a man knows not how to read, or is left-handed, it ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

That night the housekeeper burned all the books there were in the stable yard and in all the house; and there must have been some that went up in smoke which should have been preserved in everlasting archives, if the one who did the scrutinizing had not been so indolent. Thus we see the truth of the old saying, to the effect that the innocent must sometimes pay for the sins of the guilty. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Happy the age, happy the time, to which the ancients gave the name of golden, not because in that fortunate age the gold so coveted in this our iron one was gained without toil, but because they that lived in it knew not the two words "mine" and "thine"! ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Abundance, even of good things, prevents them from being valued ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

[He] is not going to exit to applause, even if the entire human race should favor him. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Fortune always leaves a door open in adversity in order to bring relief to it, ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Hunger is the best sauce in the world. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Mountains breed learned men and shepherds' huts house philosophers. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Senor Sancho Panza must know that we too have enchanters here that are well disposed to us, and tell us what goes on in the world, plainly and distinctly, without subterfuge or deception; and believe me, Sancho, that agile country lass was and is Dulcinea del Toboso, who is as much enchanted as the mother that bore her; and when we least expect it, we shall see her in her own proper form, and then Sancho will be disabused of the error he is under at present. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

All the world stand, unless all the world confess that in all the world there is no maiden fairer than the Empress of La Mancha, the peerless Dulcinea del Toboso. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

What is more dangerous than to become a poet? which is, as some say, an incurable and infectious disease. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Friends, whoe'er ye be that are immured in that prison, forgive me that, to my misfortune and yours, I cannot deliver you from your misery; ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

I betook myself to these solitudes, resolved to end here the life I hated as if it were my mortal enemy. But fate would not rid me of it, contenting itself with robbing me of my reason, ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

time has more power to undo and change things than the human will. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Señor,' responded Sancho, 'withdrawing is not running away, and waiting is not sensible when danger outweighs hope, and wise men know to save something for tomorrow and not risk everything in a single day. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Never stand begging for that which you have the power to earn. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Now, tell me which is the greater deed, raising a dead man or killing a giant?" "The answer is self-evident," responded Don Quixote. "It is greater to raise a dead man. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

I was born like everyone else, and a man must not live in dependence on anyone except God; ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Sir Knight of the Sorrowful Face, I cannot bear with patience some of the things your Grace says. They are enough to make me suspect that all you have told me about knighthood and winning kingdoms and empires, of bestowing islands and giving me other favors and honors according to the customs of chivalry must all be hot air and lies, and all a cock and bull story or cock and ball story or whatsoever you term it. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

But tell me, uncle, who is responsible for your being involved in these quarrels? Would it not be better to remain peacefully here at home and not go roaming through the world in search of better bread than is made from wheat, without taking into consideration that many who go for wool come back shorn?"
"My dear niece," replied Don Quixote, "how little you understand of these matters! Before they shear me, I will have plucked and stripped the beards of any who dare to touch the tip of a single hair of mine. ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Remember that I'm old enough to give advice, and the advice I'm giving you now is exactly right, and a bird in the hand is better than a vulture in the air, ... ~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra