Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra Quotes

Until death it is all life

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The reason for the unreason with which you treat my reason , so weakens my reason that with reason I complain of your beauty.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

El que lee mucho y anda mucho, ve mucho y sabe mucho.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Time ripens all things, no man is born wise.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Here lies a gentleman boldWho was so very braveHe went to lengths untold,And on the brink of the graveDeath had on him no hold.By the world he set small store--He frightened it to the core--Yet somehow, by Fate's plan,Though he'd lived a crazy man,When he died he was sane once more.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Diligence is the mother of good fortune.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Not with whom you are born, but with whom you are bred.

~ 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

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

Sometimes when a father has an ugly, loutish son, the love he bears him so blindfolds his eyes that he does not see his defects, or, rather, takes them for gifts and charms of mind and body, and talks of them to his friends as wit and grace. I, however—for though I pass for the father, I am but the stepfather to Don Quixote—have no desire to go with the current of custom, or to implore thee, dearest reader, almost with tears in my eyes, as others do, to pardon or excuse the defects thou wilt perceive in this child of mine. Thou art neither its kinsman nor its friend, thy soul is thine own and thy will as free as any man's, whate'er he be, thou art in thine own house and master of it as much as the king of his taxes and thou knowest the common saying, Under my cloak I kill the king; all which exempts and frees thee from every consideration and obligation, and thou canst say what thou wilt of the story without fear of being abused for any ill or rewarded for any good thou mayest say of it.

~ 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

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

I say that good painters imitated nature, but that bad ones vomited it.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

In any case, Cide Hamete Benengeli was a very careful historian, and very accurate in all things, as can be clearly seen in the details he relates to us, for although they are trivial and inconsequential, he does not attempt to pass over them in silence; his example could be followed by solemn historians who recount actions so briefly and succinctly that we can barely taste them, and leave behind in the inkwell, through carelessness, malice, or ignorance, the most substantive part of the work.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

He who sings scares away his woes.

~ 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

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

... truth, whose mother is history, who is the rival of time, depository of deeds, witness of the past, example and lesson to the present, and warning to the future.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

...he spent whole days and nights over his books, and thus with little sleeping and much reading his brains dried up to such a degree that he lost the use of his reason.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Truth may be stretched, but cannot be broken, and always gets above falsehood, as does oil above water.~ Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ~

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Anyone who is ignorant, even a lord and prince, can and should be counted as one of the mob.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

A closed mouth catches no flies.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Thou hast seen nothing yet.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

That which costs little is less valued.

~ Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Tell me thy company, and I'll tell thee what thou art

~ 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

And as the wicked are always ungrateful, and necessity leads to evil doing, and immediate advantage overcomes all considerations of the future, Ginés, who was neither grateful nor well-principled, made up his mind to steal Sancho Panza's ass.

~ 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

...if the verses are for a literary competition, your grace should try to win second place; first is always won through favor or because of the high estate of the person, second is won because of pure justice, and by this calculation third becomes second, and the first becomes third...

~ 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

A Man Without Honoris Worse than Dead.

~ 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

...a great man who is vicious will only be a great doer of evil, and a rich man who is not liberal will be only a miserly beggar; for the possessor of wealth is not made happy by possessing it, but by spending it - and not by spending as he please but by knowing how to spend it well. To the poor gentleman there is no other way of showing that he is a gentleman than by virtue, by being affable, well-bred, courteous, gentle-mannered and helpful; not haughty, arrogant or censorious, but above all by being charitable...and no one who sees him adorned with the virtues I have mentioned, will fail to recognize and judge him, though he know him not, to be of good stock.

~ 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

It is one thing to praise discipline, and another to submit to it.

~ 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