Miguel Cervantes Saavedra Quotes & Sayings

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

Everyone is as God has made him, and oftentimes a great deal worse. — 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Since then the romances of chivalry had been superseded by the flowering of literature that we know as the Spanish Golden Age, and by Cervantes's time nobody considered them to be a threat any more.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

If one were to reply that those who compose these books write them as fictions, and therefore are not obliged to consider the fine points of truth, I should respond that the more truthful the fiction, the better it is, and the more probable and possible, the more pleasing. Fictional tales must engage the minds of those who read them, and by restraining exaggeration and moderating impossibility, they enthrall the spirit and thereby astonish, captivate, delight, and entertain, allowing wonder and joy to move together at the same pace; none of these things can be accomplished by fleeing verisimilitude and mimesis, which together constitute perfection in writing. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

But once more I say do as you please, for we women are born to this burden of being obedient to our husbands, though they be blockheads — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

One who loses wealth loses much. One who loses a friend loses more. But one who loses courage loses all. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

As to her rank, she should be at the very least a princess, seeing that she is my lady and my queen. Her beauty is superhuman, for in it are realized all the impossible and chimerical attributes that poets are accustomed to give their fair ones. Her locks are golden, her brow the Elysian Fields, her eyebrows rainbows, her eyes suns, her cheeks roses, her lips coral, her teeth pearls, her neck alabaster, her bosom marble, her hands ivory, her complexion snow-white. As for those parts which modesty keeps covered from the human sight, it is my opinion that, discreetly considered, they are only to be extolled and not compared to any other. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Faint heart never won fair maiden — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

If, for my sins, or by my good fortune, I come across some giant hereabouts, a common occurrence with knights-errant, and overthrow him in one onslaught, or cleave him asunder to the waist, or, in short, vanquish and subdue him, will it not be well to have some one I may send him to as a present, that he may come in and fall on his knees before my sweet lady, and in a humble, submissive voice say, 'I am the giant Caraculiambro, lord of the island of Malindrania, vanquished in single combat by the never sufficiently extolled knight Don Quixote of La Mancha, who has commanded me to present myself before your Grace, that your Highness dispose of me at your pleasure'? — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

That which costs little is less valued. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Rocinante felt the desire to pleasure himself with the ladies, and as soon as he picked up their scent he abandoned his natural ways and customs, did not ask permission of his owner, broke into a brisk little trot, and went off to communicate his need to them. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The dogs bark because we gallop — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Take care, Sancho," said Samson; "honours change manners, and perhaps when you find yourself a governor you won't know the mother that bore you. — 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

It falls to you, Sancho, if you wish to take revenge for the affront committed against your donkey; I shall assist you from here with helpful words and advice. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Art does not surpass nature but perfects it. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

All I know is that while I'm asleep, I'm never afraid, and I have no hopes, no struggles, no glories - and bless the man who invented sleep, a cloak over all human thought, food that drives away hunger, water that banishes thirst, fire that heats up cold, chill that moderates passion, and, finally, universal currency with which all things can be bought, weight and balance that brings the shepherd and the king, the fool and the wise, to the same level. There's only one bad thing about sleep, as far as I've ever heard, and that is that it resembles death, since there's very little difference between a sleeping man and a corpse. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

So then, his armour being furbished, his morion turned into a helmet, his hack christened, and he himself confirmed, he came to the conclusion that nothing more was needed now but to look out for a lady to be in love with; for a knight-errant without love was like a tree soul. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

yet the poor knight still didn't wake up, until the barber brought a large bucketful of cold water from the well and drenched him from head to toe, and then he did awaken, but not fully enough to be aware of his situation. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Do you mean to say that the story is finished?" said Don Quixote. "As finished as my mother," said Sancho. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Fortune always leaves a door open in adversity in order to bring relief to it, — 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

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

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

He got himself dressed at last, and then, slowly, for he was
sorely bruised and could not go fast, he proceeded to the stable,
followed by all who were present, and going up to Dapple embraced
him and gave him a loving kiss on the forehead, and said to him, not
without tears in his eyes, "Come along, comrade and friend and partner
of my toils and sorrows; when I was with you and had no cares to
trouble me except mending your harness and feeding your little
carcass, happy were my hours, my days, and my years; but since I
left you, and mounted the towers of ambition and pride, a thousand
miseries, a thousand troubles, and four thousand anxieties have
entered into my soul; — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

He who sings scares away his woes. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

They must take me for a fool, or even worse, a lunatic. And no wonder ,for I am so intensely conscious of my misfortune and my misery is so overwhelming that I am powerless to resist it and am being turned into stone, devoid of all knowledge or feeling. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

All kinds of beauty do not inspire love; there is a kind which only pleases the sight, but does not captivate the affections. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

[W]omen are born with the obligation to obey their husbands even if they're fools. — 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

Destiny guides our fortunes more favorably than we could have expected. Look there, Sancho Panza, my friend, and see those thirty or so wild giants, with whom I intend to do battle and kill each and all of them, so with their stolen booty we can begin to enrich ourselves. This is nobel, righteous warfare, for it is wonderfully useful to God to have such an evil race wiped from the face of the earth."
"What giants?" Asked Sancho Panza.
"The ones you can see over there," answered his master, "with the huge arms, some of which are very nearly two leagues long."
"Now look, your grace," said Sancho, "what you see over there aren't giants, but windmills, and what seems to be arms are just their sails, that go around in the wind and turn the millstone."
"Obviously," replied Don Quijote, "you don't know much about adventures. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Love and war are exactly alike. It is lawful to use tricks and slights to obtain a desired end. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The poor man is incapacitated from showing the virtue of generosity to anyone, though he may possess it in the highest degree; and gratitude that consists of disposition only is a dead thing, just as faith without works is dead. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Windmills were giants, and the monks' mules dromedaries, flocks of sheep armies of enemies, — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

There are many theologians who are not good in the pulpit but are excellent at recognizing the lacks or excesses of those who preach. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

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

I do not think it is wise to force them to study one thing or another, although persuading them to do so would not be harmful; and when there is no need to study pane lucrando,1 if the student is so fortunate that heaven has endowed him with parents who can spare him that, it would be my opinion that they should allow him to pursue the area of knowledge to which they can see he is inclined; although poetry is less useful than pleasurable, it is not one of those that dishonors the one who knows it. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The eyes those silent tongues of love. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

My heart is wax molded as she pleases, but enduring as marble to retain. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Many go out for wool, and come home shorn themselves. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

My reason is now free and clear, rid of the dark shadows of ignorance that my unhappy constant study of those detestable books of chivalry cast over it. Now I see through their absurdities and deceptions, and it only grieves me that this destruction of my illusions has come so late that it leaves me no time to make some amends by reading other books that might be a light to my soul. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

For me alone Don Quixote was born and I for him. His was the power of action, mine of writing. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

One who has not only the four S's, which are required in every good lover, but even the whole alphabet; as for example ... Agreeable, Bountiful, Constant, Dutiful, Easy, Faithful, Gallant, Honorable, Ingenious, Kind, Loyal, Mild, Noble, Officious, Prudent, Quiet, Rich, Secret, True, Valiant, Wise; the X indeed, is too harsh a letter to agree with him, but he is Young and Zealous. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

There is a remedy for everything except death, responded Don Quixote, — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

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

Thou hast seen nothing yet. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

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

Good painters imitate nature, but bad ones spew it up. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Where one door shuts, another opens. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

no history is bad if it be true. If — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The first thing he did was to clean up some armour that — 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

At last, when his wits were gone beyond repair, he came to conceive the strangest idea that ever occurred to any madman in this world. It now appeared to him fitting and necessary, in order to win a greater amount of honor for himself and serve his country at the same time, to become a knight-errant and roam the world on horseback, in a suit of armor; he would go in quest of adventures, by way of putting into practice all that he had read in his books; he would right every manner of wrong, placing himself in situations of the greatest peril such as would redound to the eternal glory of his name. As a reward for his valor and the might of his arm, the poor fellow could already see himself crowned Emperor of Trebizond at the very least; and so, carried away by the strange pleasure that he found in such thoughts as these, he at once set about putting his plan into effect. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

And so I believe that the sage I have mentioned must, a moment ago, have placed in your thoughts and on your tongue the appellation "The Knight of the Sorry Face", which is what I propose to call myself from now on; and to ensure that the title suits me all the better, I am resolved to have painted on my coat of arms, at the earliest opportunity, a very sorry face. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

What I can tell your grace is that it deals with truths, and they are truths so appealing and elegant that no lies can equal them. — 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

A travesty that for coarseness, vulgarity, and buffoonery is almost unexampled even in the literature of that day. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

But what made him still more fortunate, as he said himself, was having a daughter of such exceeding beauty, rare intelligence, gracefulness, and virtue, that everyone who knew her and beheld her marvelled at the extraordinary gifts with which heaven and nature had endowed her. As a child she was beautiful, she continued to grow in beauty, and at the age of sixteen she was most lovely. The fame of her beauty began to spread abroad through all the villages around - but why do I say the villages around, merely, when it spread to distant cities, and even made its way into the halls of royalty and reached the ears of people of every class, who came from all sides to see her as if to see something rare and curious, or some wonder-working image? — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The ability to reason the un-reason which has afflicted by reason saps my ability to reason, so that I complain with good reason of your infinite loveliness. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

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

For it is the business and duty of historians to be exact, truthful, and wholly free from passion, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor love, should make them swerve from the path of truth, whose mother is history, rival of time, storehouse of deeds, witness for the past, example and counsel for the present, and warning for the future. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

After he in his memory and imagination had made up, struck out, and discarded many names, now adding to and now subtracting from the list, he finally hit upon "Rocinante," a name that impressed him as being sonorous and at the same time indicative of what the steed had been when it was but a hack, whereas now it was nothing other than the first and foremost of all the hacks in the world. — 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

But now, in these our detestable times, no maiden is safe, even if she is hidden and enclosed in another labyrinth like the one in Crete; because even there, through chinks in the wall, or carried by the air itself, with the zealousness of accursed solicitation the amorous pestilence finds its way in and, despite all their seclusion, maidens are brought to ruin. It was for their protection, as time passed and wickedness spread, that the order of knights errant was instituted: to defend maidens, protect widows, and come to the aid of orphans and those in need. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

There is no book so bad ... that it does not have something good in it. — 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

For the truth may run fine but will not break, and always rises above falsehood as oil above water; — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Only make yourself honey and the flies will suck you. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

In short, our gentleman became so immersed in his reading that he spent whole nights from sundown to sunup and his days from dawn to dusk in poring over his books, until, finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind. He filled his imagination with everything he had read, with enchantments, knightly encounters, battles, challenges, wounds, with tales of love and its torments, and all sorts of impossible things, and as a result had come to believe that all these fictitious happenings were true; they were more real to him than anything else in the world. — 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

A father may have a child who is ugly and lacking in all the graces, and the love he feels for him puts a blindfold over his eyes so that he does not see his defects but considers them signs of charm and intelligence and recounts them to his friends as if they were clever and witty. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

"Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Until death it is all life — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Whether thus adorned she would have been beautiful or not, and what she must have been in her prosperity, may be imagined from the beauty remaining to her after so many hardships; for, as everyone knows, the beauty of some women has its times and its seasons, and is increased or diminished by chance causes; and naturally the emotions of the mind will heighten or impair it, though indeed more frequently they totally destroy it. — 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

Brother, this is not a day on which hunger is to have any sway, thanks to the rich Camacho; get down and look about for a ladle and skim off a hen or two, and much good may they do you." "I don't see one," said Sancho. "Wait a bit," said the cook; "sinner that I am! how particular and bashful you are!" and so saying, he seized a bucket and plunging it into one of the half jars took up three hens and a couple of geese, and said to Sancho, "Fall to, friend, and take the edge off your appetite with these skimmings until dinner-time comes. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

They were puffing at him with a great pair of bellows; for the whole adventure was so well planned by the duke, the duchess, and their majordomo, that nothing was omitted to make it perfectly successful. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The dead to the grave, the living to the loaf. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

A closed mouth catches no flies. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Maybe the greatest madness is to see life as it is rather than what it could be. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

When a rich man is hurt, his wail goeth heavens high. (Sancho Panza) — 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

Truly I was born to be an example of misfortune, and a target at which the arrows of adversary are aimed. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

For neither good nor evil can last for ever; and so it follows that as evil has lasted a long time, good must now be close at hand. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

There's no taking trout with dry breeches. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

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

Sleep is the best cure for waking troubles. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

It is not the responsibility of knights errant to discover whether the afflicted, the enchained and the oppressed whom they encounter on the road are reduced to these circumstances and suffer this distress for their vices, or for their virtues: the knight's sole responsibility is to succour them as people in need, having eyes only for their sufferings, not for their misdeeds. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

He seized a bucket and plunging it into one of the half jars took up three hens and a couple of geese, — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

I have always heard it said, Sancho, that to do good to boors is to throw water into the sea. — 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

There were no embraces, because where there is great love there is often little display of it. — 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

He tried his luck again, and things went so smoothly that with no more noise or disturbance than the last time, he found himself rid of the burden that had caused him so much grief. But since Don Quixote had a sense of smell as acute as his hearing, and Sancho was joined so closely to him, and the vapors rose up almost in a straight line, some unavoidably reached his nostrils, and as soon as they did he came to the assistance of his nostrils and squeezed them closed between two fingers, and in a somewhat nasal voice, he said: It seems to me, Sancho, that you are very frightened. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Oh, how our good knight reveled in this speech, and more than ever when he came to think of the name that he should give his lady! As the story goes, there was a very good=looking farm girl who lived near by, with whom he had once been smitten, although it is generally believed that she never knew or suspected it. Her name was Aldonza Lorenzo, and it seemed to him that she was the one upon whom he should bestow the title of mistress of his thoughts. For her he wished a name that should not be incongruous with his own and that would convey the suggestion of a princess or a great lady; and, accordingly, he resolved to call her "Dulcinea del Toboso," she being a native of that place. A musical name to his ears, out of the ordinary and significant, like the others he had chosen for himself and his appurtenances. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

I don't see what my arse has to do with enchantings! — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

All you have to do is try, with meaningful words, properly and effectively arranged, to honestly unroll your sentences and paragraphs, clearly, sensibly, just explaining what you're up to as well and as powerfully as you can. Let your ideas be understood without making them complicated or obscure. And see, too, if your pages can make sad men laugh as they read, and make smiling men even happier; try to keep simple men untroubled, and wise men impressed by your imagination, and sober men not contemptuous, nor careful men reluctant, to praise it. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

A Man Without Honor
is Worse than Dead. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

I've always heard the old folks say that if you don't know how to enjoy good luck when it comes, you shouldn't complain if it passes you by. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

He did not think about any promises his master had made to him, and he did not consider it work but sheer pleasure to go around seeking adventures, no matter how dangerous they might be. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra