Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra Quotes

“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

“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 are two kinds of beauty, one being of the soul and the other of the body,
That of the soul is revealed through intelligence, modesty, right conduct,
Generosity and good breeding, all of which qualities may exist in an ugly man;
And when one's gaze is fixed upon beauty of this sort and not upon that of the body,
Love is usually born suddenly and violently.”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“Where envy reigns virtue can't exist, and generosity doesn't go with meanness.”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

The journey is better than the inn.

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

There are many hours and minutes between now and tomorrowand in any one of them-even in a minute,the house falls

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“Many go out for wool, and come home shorn themselves.”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“Love is influenced by no consideration, recognizes no restraints of reason, and is of the same nature as death, that assails alike the lofty palaces of kings and the humble cabins of shepherds; and when it takes entire possession of a heart, the first thing it does is to banish fear and shame from it.”

— 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

“He is most blessed who loves the most, the freest who is most enslaved by love,”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“Let's turn now to the citation of authors, found in other books and missing in yours. The solution to this is very simple, because all you have to do is find a book that cites them all from A to Z, as you put it. Then you'll put that same alphabet in your book, and though the lie is obvious it doesn't matter, since you'll have little need to use them; perhaps someone will be naive enough to believe you have consulted all of them in your plain and simple history; if it serves no other purpose, at least a lengthy catalogue of authors will give the book an unexpected authority. Furthermore, no one will try to determine if you followed them or did not follow them, having nothing to gain from that.”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“The greatest madness a man can be guilty of in this life, is to let himself die outright, without being slain by any person whatever, or destroyed by any other weapon than the hands of melancholy”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“One man is no more than another, if he do no more than what another does.”

— 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

“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

“[reading a work in translation] is like viewing a piece of Flemish tapestry on the wrong side.”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“-Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.”

— 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

“This fierce basilisk, this ungrateful, cruel, supercilious wretch, will neither seek, serve, own, nor follow you in any shape whatever.”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“I have never died all my life”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“This was the first time that he thoroughly felt and believed himself to be a knight-errant in reality and not merely in fancy, now that he saw himself treated in the same way as he had read of such knights being treated in days of yore.”

— 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

In the meanwhile Don Quixote was bringing his powers of persuasion to bear upon a farmer who lived near by, a good man-if this title may be applied to one who is poor-but with very few wits in his head. The short of it is, by pleas and promises, he got the hapless rustic to agree to ride forth with him and serve him as his squire. Among other things, Don Quixote told him that he ought to be more than willing to go, because no telling what adventure might occur which would win them an island, and then he (the farmer) would be left to be the governor of it. As a result of these and other similar assurances, Sancho Panza forsook his wife and children and consented to take upon himself the duties of squire to his neighbor.

— 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

“Plunge, scoundrel, rogue, monster-for such I take thee to be-plunge, I say, into the mare magnum of their histories; and if thou shalt find that any squire ever said or thought what thou hast said now, I will let thee nail it on my forehead, and give me, over and above, four sound slaps in the face.”

— 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

“What I wish to tell you now you must swear to keep secret until after my death." "I swear," Sancho responded. "I say this," replied Don Quixote, "because I do not wish to take away anyone's honor." "I say that I swear," Sancho said again, "to keep quiet about it until your grace has reached the end of your days, and God willing, I'll be able to reveal it tomorrow.”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“All human efforts to communicate-even in the same language-are equally utopian, equally luminous with value, and equally worth the doing.”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“The landlord replied he had no chickens, for the kites had stolen them.”

— 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 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

“Sancho, when a man knows not how to read, or is left-handed, it argues one of two things; either that he was the son of exceedingly mean and lowly parents, or that he himself was so incorrigible and ill-conditioned that neither good company nor good teaching could make any impression on him.”

— 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

Since Cervantes's magnificent Knight's quest has cosmological scope and reverberation, no object seems beyond reach.

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“Vagabond knight Don Quixote of La Mancha, otherwise called 'The Knight of the Rueful Countenance.”

— 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

“Not only a countess but a nymph of the greenwood,”

— 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

“Mountains breed learned men and shepherds' huts house philosophers.”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“All I can say,' said Sancho, "is that I perceived a masculine scent about her which must have been because, with so much hard labor, she was sweaty and somewhat slimy." "It”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“Nothing flows from her, vile rabble.”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“Trying to stop slanderers' tongues is like trying to put gates to the open plain.”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“Never mind what some will say, for then thou wilt never have done. One may as soon tie up the winds, as the tongues of slanderers.”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“Secondly, thou must keep in view what thou art, striving to know thyself, the”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“He was by profession a humanist, and that his pursuits and studies were making books for the press,”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“I know who I am," said Don Quixote, "and who I may be, if I choose: not only those I have mentioned but all the Twelve Peers of France and the Nine Worthies as well; for the exploits of all of them together, or separately, cannot compare with mine.”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“Who was the first man that scratched his head? For to my thinking it must have been our father Adam.”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“Halt! ill-born rabble, follow him not nor pursue him, or ye will have to reckon with me in battle!”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

“Buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing. An olla”

— Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra