Top quotes by Miguel de Cervantes

Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes. Votes: 25

From reading too much, and sleeping too little, his brain dried up on him and he lost his judgment. Votes: 17

For a man to attain to an eminent degree in learning costs him time, watching, hunger, nakedness, dizziness in the head, weakness in the stomach, and other inconveniences. Votes: 13

Delay always breeds danger; and to protract a great design is often to ruin it. Votes: 13

The gratification of wealth is not found in mere possession or in lavish expenditure, but in its wise application. Votes: 13

Laziness never arrived at the attainment of a good wish. Votes: 13

Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory. Votes: 13

Truth indeed rather alleviates than hurts, and will always bear up against falsehood, as oil does above water. Votes: 11

That's the nature of women, not to love when we love them, and to love when we love them not. Votes: 9

Alas! all music jars when the soul's out of tune. Votes: 9

Our hours in love have wings; in absence, crutches. Votes: 9

In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd. Votes: 9

Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Votes: 9

Never stand begging for that which you have the power to earn. Votes: 8

Proverbs are short sentences drawn from long experience. Votes: 7

It is the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not to venture all his eggs in one basket. Votes: 7

The eyes those silent tongues of love. Votes: 6

No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly. Votes: 6

I have always heard, Sancho, that doing good to base fellows is like throwing water into the sea. Votes: 6

Truth may be stretched, but cannot be broken, and always gets above falsehood, as does oil above water. Votes: 6

A bad year and a bad month to all the backbiting bitches in the world!... Votes: 6

A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience. Votes: 5

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. Votes: 5

Love and war are the same thing, and stratagems and policy are as allowable in the one as in the other. Votes: 4

To withdraw is not to run away, and to stay is no wise action, when there's more reason to fear than to hope. Votes: 4

Among the attributes of God, although they are equal, mercy shines with even more brilliance than justice. Votes: 4

He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses his courage loses all. Votes: 3

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. Votes: 3

There are only two families in the world, my old grandmother used to say, the Haves and the Have-nots. Votes: 2

Man appoints, and God disappoints. Votes: 1

There is also this benefit in brag, that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor him by all means, draw it all out, and hold him to it. Votes: 0

It's up to brave hearts, sir, to be patient when things are going badly, as well as being happy when they're going well ... For I've heard that what they call fortune is a flighty woman who drinks too much, and, what's more, she's blind, so she can't see what she's doing, and she doesn't know who she's knocking over or who she's raising up. Votes: 0

The good governor should have a broken leg and keep at home. Votes: 0

Be a terror to the butchers, that they may be fair in their weight; and keep hucksters and fraudulent dealers in awe, for the same reason. Votes: 0

Captivity is the greatest of all evils that can befall one. Votes: 0

And for the citation of so many authors, 'tis the easiest thing in nature. Find out one of these books with an alphabetical index, and without any farther ceremony, remove it verbatim into your own... there are fools enough to be thus drawn into an opinion of the work; at least, such a flourishing train of attendants will give your book a fashionable air, and recommend it for sale. Votes: 0

Now blessings light on him that first invented this same sleep. It covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak. Votes: 0

Our greatest foes, and whom we must chiefly combat, are within. Votes: 0

Comparisons are odious. Votes: 0

One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world will be better for this. Votes: 0

True valor lies between cowardice and rashness. Votes: 0

All sorrows are less with bread. Votes: 0

Tis a dainty thing to command, though 'twere but a flock of sheep. Votes: 0

Delay always breeds danger. Votes: 0

The darts of love are blunted by maiden modesty. Votes: 0

There is a strange charm in the thoughts of a good legacy, or the hopes of an estate, which wondrously removes or at least alleviates the sorrow that men would otherwise feel for the death of friends. Votes: 0

Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our deeds. Votes: 0

The phoenix hope, can wing her way through the desert skies, and still defying fortune's spite; revive from ashes and rise. Votes: 0

There's no taking trout with dry breeches. Votes: 0

Since Don Quixote de la Mancha is a crazy fool and a madman, and since Sancho Panza, his squire, knows it, yet, for all that, serves and follows him, and hangs on these empty promises of his, there can be no doubt that he is more of a madman and a fool than his master. Votes: 0

It is one thing to write as poet and another to write as a historian: the poet can recount or sing about things not as they were, but as they should have been, and the historian must write about them not as they should have been, but as they were, without adding or subtracting anything from the truth. Votes: 0

He had a face like a blessing. Votes: 0

Truth will rise above falsehood as oil above water. Votes: 0

I find my familiarity with thee has bred contempt. Votes: 0

It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow. Votes: 0

The virtuous woman must be treated like a relic - adored, but not handled; she should be guarded and prized, like a fine flower-garden, the beauty and fragrance of which the owner allows others to enjoy only at a distance, and through iron walls. Votes: 0

There is no remembrance which time does not obliterate, nor pain which death does not terminate. Votes: 0

Tis said of love that it sometimes goes, sometimes flies; runs with one, walks gravely with another; turns a third into ice, and sets a fourth in a flame: it wounds one, another it kills: like lightning it begins and ends in the same moment: it makes that fort yield at night which it besieged but in the morning; for there is no force able to resist it.... Votes: 0

The bow cannot always stand bent, nor can human frailty subsist without some lawful recreation. Votes: 0

Leap out of the frying pan into the fire. Votes: 0

Do not eat garlic or onions; for their smell will reveal that you are a peasant. Votes: 0

My thoughts ran a wool-gathering. Votes: 0

Pray look better, Sir... those things yonder are no giants, but windmills. Votes: 0

Great persons are able to do great kindnesses. Votes: 0

Valor lies just halfway between rashness and cowardice. Votes: 0

Fear has many eyes and can see things underground. Votes: 0

Let us make hay while the sun shines. Votes: 0

Liberty, as well as honor, man ought to preserve at the hazard of his life, for without it life is insupportable Votes: 0

An honest man's word is as good as his bond. Votes: 0

Honesty is the best policy, I will stick to that. The good shall have my hand and heart, but the bad neither foot nor fellowship. And in my mind, the main point of governing, is to make a good beginning. Votes: 0

There is nothing so subject to the inconstancy of fortune as war. Votes: 0

All kinds of beauty do not inspire love; there is a kind which only pleases the sight, but does not captivate the affections. Votes: 0

Jests that give pains are no jests. Votes: 0

In every case, the remedy is to take action. Get clear about exactly what it is that you need to learn and exactly what you need to do to learn it. BEING CLEAR KILLS FEAR. Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world. Votes: 0

Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world Votes: 0

Time ripens all things; no man is born wise. Votes: 0

It is good to live and learn. Votes: 0

When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Votes: 0

Too much sanity may be madness. Votes: 0

Jealousy sees things always with magnifying glasses which make little things large, of dwarfs giants, of suspicions truths. Votes: 0

No padlocks, bolts, or bars can secure a maiden better than her own reserve. Votes: 0

I believe there's no proverb but what is true; they are all so many sentences and maxims drawn from experience, the universal mother of sciences. Votes: 0

Tis the only comfort of the miserable to have partners in their woes. Votes: 0

There's no love lost between us. Votes: 0

There is no love lost between us. Votes: 0

Virtue is the truest nobility. Votes: 0

I must speak the truth, and nothing but the truth. Votes: 0

God who sends the wound sends the medicine. Votes: 0

Translating from one language to another, unless it is from Greek and Latin, the queens of all languages, is like looking at Flemish tapestries from the wrong side, for although the figures are visible, they are covered by threads that obscure them, and cannot be seen with the smoothness and color of the right side. Votes: 0

No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind. Votes: 0

The pen is the tongue of the mind. Votes: 0

Honesty's the best policy. Votes: 0

Spare your breath to cool your porridge. Votes: 0

I never thrust my nose into other men's porridge. It is no bread and butter of mine; every man for himself, and God for us all. Votes: 0

The proof is in the pudding. Votes: 0

The proof of the pudding is the eating. Votes: 0

The worst reconciliation is better than the best divorce. Votes: 0

The pitcher goes so often to the fountain that if gets broken. Votes: 0

In hell there is no retention. Votes: 0

What man can pretend to know the riddle of a woman's mind? Votes: 0

When you are at Rome, do as you see. Votes: 0

When thou art at Rome, do as they do at Rome. Votes: 0

Tell me thy company, and I'll tell thee what thou art. Votes: 0

Fair and softly goes far. Votes: 0

It is a true saying that a man must eat a peck of salt with his friend before he knows him. Votes: 0

Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be. Votes: 0

Hunger is the best sauce in the world. Votes: 0

There's no sauce in the world like hunger. Votes: 0

Laws that only threaten, and are not kept, become like the log that was given to the frogs to be their king, which they feared at first, but soon scorned and trampled on. Votes: 0

Once a woman parts with her virtue, she loses the esteem even of the man whose vows and tears won her to abandon it. Votes: 0

The most difficult character in comedy is that of the fool, and he must be no simpleton that plays that part. Votes: 0

The most perceptive character in a play is the fool, because the man who wishes to seem simple cannot possibly be a simpleton. Votes: 0

Tis an old saying, the Devil lurks behind the cross. All is not gold that glitters. From the tail of the plough, Bamba was made King of Spain; and from his silks and riches was Rodrigo cast to be devoured by the snakes. Votes: 0

Tis the maddest trick a man can ever play in his whole life, to let his breath sneak out of his body without any more ado, and without so much as a rap o'er the pate, or a kick of the guts; to go out like the snuff of a farthing candle, and die merely of the mulligrubs, or the sullens. Votes: 0

Does the devil possess you? You're leaping over the hedge before you come at the stile. Votes: 0

A stout heart breaks bad luck. Votes: 0

Historians ought to be precise, faithful, and unprejudiced; and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should make them swerve from the way of truth. Votes: 0

For historians ought to be precise, truthful, and quite unprejudiced, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should cause them to swerve from the path of truth, whose mother is history, the rival of time, the depository of great actions, the witness of what is past, the example and instruction of the present, the monitor of the future. Votes: 0

Never meddle with play-actors, for they're a favoured race. Votes: 0

Every tooth in a man's head is more valuable than a diamond. Votes: 0

Treason pleases, but not the traitor. Votes: 0

He preaches well that lives well. Votes: 0

The treason pleases, but the traitors are odious. Votes: 0

It is one thing to praise discipline, and another to submit to it. Votes: 0

True courage lies in the middle, between cowardice and recklessness. Votes: 0

The wicked are always ungrateful. Votes: 0

That which costs little is less valued. Votes: 0

The knowledge of yourself will preserve you from vanity. Votes: 0

It takes all sorts (to make a world Votes: 0

Good Christians should never avenge injuries. Votes: 0

There is no jewel in the world so valuable as a chaste and virtuous woman. Votes: 0

Sleep is the best cure for waking troubles. Votes: 0

God bears with the wicked, but not forever. Votes: 0

Many go out for wool, and come home shorn themselves. Votes: 0

I do not say a proverb is amiss when aptly and reasonably applied, but to be forever discharging them, right or wrong, hit or miss, renders conversation insipid and vulgar. Votes: 0

To be prepared is half the victory. Votes: 0

When the severity of the law is to be softened, let pity, not bribes, be the motive. Votes: 0

Those who'll play with cats must expect to be scratched. Votes: 0

One of the most considerable advantages the great have over their inferiors is to have servants as good as themselves. Votes: 0

Drink moderately, for drunkeness neither keeps a secret, nor observes a promise. Votes: 0

Modesty, tis a virtue not often found among poets, for almost every one of them thinks himself the greatest in the world. Votes: 0

Tis a dainty thing to command, though twere but a flock of sheep. Votes: 0

'Tis ill talking of halters in the house of a man that was hanged. Votes: 0

Liberty, as well as honor, man ought to preserve at the hazard of his life, for without it life is insupportable. Votes: 0

A closed mouth catches no flies. Votes: 0

Every man is the son of his own works. Votes: 0

Every man is as heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse. Votes: 0

"From what I have seen here," remarked Sancho, "justice is so good a thing that even robbers find it necessary." Votes: 0

"He preaches well that lives well," quoth Sancho, "that's all the divinity I can understand." Votes: 0

... he who's down one day can be up the next, unless he really wants to stay in bed, that is... Votes: 0

...for hope is always born at the same time as love... Votes: 0

[To] turn poet, they say, is an infectious and incurable distemper. Votes: 0

A blot in thy escutcheon to all futurity. Votes: 0

A good name is better than bags of gold. Votes: 0

A knight errant who turns mad for a reason deserves neither merit nor thanks. The thing is to do it without cause Votes: 0

A knowledge of thyself will preserve thee from vanity. Votes: 0

A little in one's own pocket is better than much in another man's purse. Votes: 0

A man prepared has half fought the battle. Votes: 0

A Man Without Honor is Worse than Dead. Votes: 0

A person dishonored is worst than dead. Votes: 0

A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world, as a public indecency. Votes: 0

A shy face is better than a forward heart. Votes: 0

A silly remark can be made in Latin as well as in Spanish. Votes: 0

A tooth is much more to be prized than a diamond. Votes: 0

A wise man does not trust all his eggs to one basket. Votes: 0

Abundance, even of good things, prevents them from being valued Votes: 0

All I know is that so long I am asleep I am rid of all fears and hopes and toils and glory, and long live the man who invented sleep, the cloak that covers all human thirst. Votes: 0

All is not gold that glisters. Votes: 0

All of that is true,' responded Don Quixote, "˜but we cannot all be friars, and God brings His children to heaven by many paths: chivalry is a religion, and there are sainted knights in Glory.' Yes,' responded Sancho, "˜but I've heard that there are more friars in heaven than knights errant.' That is true,' responded Don Quixote, "˜because the number of religious is greater than the number of knights.' There are many who are errant,' said Sancho. Many,' responded Don Quixote, "˜but few who deserve to be called knights. Votes: 0

All persons are not discreet enough to know how to take things by the right handle. Votes: 0

All sorrows are bearable, if there is bread. Votes: 0

All the vices, Sancho, bring some kind of pleasure with them; but envy brings nothing but irritation, bitterness, and rage. Votes: 0

All women are good - good for nothing, or good for something. Votes: 0

And thus being totally preoccupied, he rode so slowly that the sun was soon glowing with such intense heat that it would have melted his brains, if he'd had any. Votes: 0

Anyone who does not know how to make the most of his luck has no right to complain if it passes by him. Votes: 0

Arms are my ornaments, warfare my repose. Votes: 0

At this the duchess, laughing all the while, said: "Sancho Panza is right in all he has said, and will be right in all he shall say... Votes: 0

Be brief, for no talk can please when too long. Being prepared is half the victory. Votes: 0

Be not under the dominion of thine own will; it is the vice of the ignorant, who vainly presume on their own understanding. Votes: 0

Be slow of tongue and quick of eye. Votes: 0

Be temperate in your drinking, remembering that too much wine cannot keep either a secret or a promise. Votes: 0

Behind the cross is the devil. Votes: 0

Believe there are no limits but the sky. Votes: 0

Beware, gentle knight - the greatest monster of them all is reason. Votes: 0

Bien predica quien bien vive. He who lives well is the best preacher. Votes: 0

Blessed be he who invented sleep, a cloak that covers all a man's thoughts. Votes: 0

Blessed be those happy ages that were strangers to the dreadful fury of these devilish instruments of artillery, whose inventor I am satisfied is now in Hell, receiving the reward of his cursed invention, which is the cause that very often a cowardly base hand takes away the life of the bravest gentleman. Votes: 0

Blessings on him, who invented sleep. Votes: 0

But do not give it to a lawyer's clerk to write, for they use a legal hand that Satan himself will not understand. Votes: 0

But my thoughts ran a wool-gathering; and I did like the countryman, who looked for his ass while he was mounted on his back. Votes: 0

By God and upon my conscience, said the devil, I never observed it, for my mind is occupied with so many different things that I was forgetting the main thing I came about. This demon must be an honest fellow and a good Christian, said Sancho; for if he wasn't he wouldn't swear by God and his conscience; I feel sure now there must be good souls even in hell itself. Votes: 0

By such innovations are languages enriched, when the words are adopted by the multitude, and naturalized by custom. Votes: 0

By the streets of 'by and by,' one arrives at the house of 'never'. Votes: 0

Can we ever have too much of a good thing? Votes: 0

Cunning cheats itself wholly, and other people partially. Votes: 0

Death eats up all things, both the young lamb and the old sheep. Votes: 0

Delay always heeds danger. Votes: 0

Digo, paciencia y barajar. What I say is, patience, and shuffle the cards. Votes: 0

Dine on little, and sup on less. Votes: 0

Do but take care to express yourself in a plain, easy Manner, in well-chosen, significant and decent Terms, and to give a harmonious and pleasing Turn to your Periods: study to explain your Thoughts, and set them in the truest Light, labouring as much as possible, not to leave them dark nor intricate, but clear and intelligible. Votes: 0

Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them. Votes: 0

Don Quixote followed nature, and being satisfied with his first sleep, did not solicit more. As for Sancho, he never wanted a second, for the first lasted him from night to morning, indicating a sound body and a mind free from care; but his master, being unable to sleep himself awakened him, saying, "I am amazed, Sancho, at the torpor of thy soul; it seems as if thou wert made of marble or brass, insensible of emotion or sentiment!... Votes: 0

Don't put too fine a point to your wit for fear it should get blunted. Votes: 0

El pan comido y la compan? |a deshecha. With the bread eaten, the company breaks up. Votes: 0

Every dog has his day. Votes: 0

Every man is as God made him, ay, and often worse. Votes: 0

Every one in his own house and God in all of them. Votes: 0

Every production must resemble its author. Votes: 0

Everyone is as God has made him, and oftentimes a great deal worse. Votes: 0

Everything disturbs an absent lover. Votes: 0

Evil comes not amiss if it comes alone. Votes: 0

Experience is the universal mother of sciences. Votes: 0

Facts are the enemy of truth. Votes: 0

Faint heart ne'er won fair lady. Votes: 0

Fly not, cowards and vile beings, for a single knight attacks you. Votes: 0

Folly is wont to have more followers and comrades than discretion. Votes: 0

For if he like a madman lived; At least he like a wise one died. Votes: 0

For let us women be never so ill-favored, I imagine that we are always delighted to hear ourselves called handsome. Votes: 0

For me alone Don Quixote was born and I for him. His was the power of action, mine of writing. Votes: 0

For men may prove and use their friends, as the poet expresses it, usque ad aras, meaning that a friend should not be required to act contrary to the law of God. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

For the army is a school in which the miser becomes generous, and the generous prodigal; miserly soldiers are like monsters, but very rarely seen. Votes: 0

Fortune leaves always some door open to come at a remedy. Votes: 0

Fortune may have yet a better success in reserve for you and they who lose today may win tomorrow. Votes: 0

Get out of harms way. Votes: 0

Get the better of yourself - this is the best kind of victory. Votes: 0

Give the devil his due. Votes: 0

God exalts the man who humbles himself. Votes: 0

God helps everyone with what is his own. Votes: 0

God who gives the wound gives the salve. Votes: 0

Good painter imitates nature, bad ones spews it up. Votes: 0

Good wits jump; a word to the wise is enough. Votes: 0

Great expectations are better than a poor possession. Votes: 0

Great people create great acts of kindness. Votes: 0

Happy the man to whom heaven has given a morsel of bread without laying him under the obligation of thanking any other for it than heaven itself. Votes: 0

He is mad past recovery, but yet he has lucid intervals. Votes: 0

He preaches well that lives well Votes: 0

He that gives quickly gives twice. Votes: 0

He that will not when he may, When he would, he should have nay. Votes: 0

He who gives early gives twice. Votes: 0

He who has the judge for his father goes into court with an easy mind. Votes: 0

He who reforms, God assists. Votes: 0

He who sings frightens away his ills. Votes: 0

He who's never loved cannot be good. Votes: 0

Health and cheerfulness make beauty Votes: 0

Heaven's help is better than early rising. Votes: 0

Here lies a gentleman bold Who was so very brave He went to lengths untold, And on the brink of the grave Death 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. Votes: 0

History is in a manner a sacred thing, so far as it contains truth; for where truth is, the supreme Father of it may also be said to be, at least, inasmuch as concerns truth. Votes: 0

History is the depository of great actions, the witness of what is past, the example and instructor of the present, and monitor to the future. Votes: 0

I am almost frightened out of my seven senses. Votes: 0

I can tell where my own shoe pinches me. Votes: 0

I do not believe that the Good Lord plays dice. Votes: 0

I do not deny that what happened to us is a thing worth laughing at. But it is not worth telling, for not everyone is sufficiently intelligent to be able to see things from the right point of view. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

I drink when I have occasion, and sometimes when I have no occasion. Votes: 0

I follow a more easy, and, in my opinion, a wiser course, namely--to inveigh against the levity of the female sex, their fickleness, their double-dealing, their rotten promises, their broken faith, and, finally, their want of judgment in bestowing their affections. Votes: 0

I had rather munch a crust of brown bread and an onion in a corner, without any more ado or ceremony, than feed upon turkey at another man?s table, where one is fain to sit mincing and chewing his meat an hour together, drink little, be always wiping his fingers and his chops, and never dare to cough nor sneeze, though he has never so much a mind to it, nor do a many things which a body may do freely by one?s self. Votes: 0

I had rather munch a crust of brown bread and an onion in a corner, without any more ado, or ceremony, than feed upon turkey at another man's table. Votes: 0

I have other fish to fry. Votes: 0

I know well enough that there have been dogs so loving that they have thrown themselves into the same grave with the dead bodies of their masters; others have stayed upon their masters' graves without stirring a moment from them, and have voluntarily starved themselves to death, refusing to touch the food that was brought them. Votes: 0

I know what's what, and have always taken care of the main chance. Votes: 0

I shall be as secret as the grave. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

I would do what I pleased, and doing what I pleased, I should have my will, and having my will, I should be contented; and when one is contented, there is no more to be desired; and when there is no more to be desired, there is an end of it. Votes: 0

I would have nobody to control me; I would be absolute: and who but I? Now, he that is absolute can do what he likes; he that can do what he likes can take his pleasure; he that can take his pleasure can be content; and he that can be content has no more to desire. So the matter 's over; and come what will come, I am satisfied. Votes: 0

If thou takest virtue for the rule of life, and valuest thyself upon acting in all things comfortably thereto, thou wilt have no cause to envy lords and princes; for blood is inherited, but virtue is common property, and may be acquired by all; it has, moreover, an intrinsic worth, which blood has not. Votes: 0

If you are ambitious of climbing up to the difficult, and in a manner inaccessible, summit of the Temple of Fame, your surest way is to leave on one hand the narrow path of Poetry, and follow the narrower track of Knight-Errantry, which in a trice may raise you to an imperial throne. Votes: 0

I'll turn over a new leaf. Votes: 0

Ill-luck, you know, seldom comes alone. Votes: 0

In short, virtue cannot live where envy reigns, nor liberality subsist with niggardliness. Votes: 0

In the night all cats are gray. Votes: 0

Inasmuch as ill-deeds spring up as a spontaneous crop, they are easy to learn. Votes: 0

Is it possible your pragmatical worship should not know that the comparisons made between wit and wit, courage and courage, beauty and beauty, birth and birth, are always odious and ill taken?. Votes: 0

It is better that a judge should lean on the side of compassion than severity. Votes: 0

It is courage that vanquishes in war, and not good weapons. Votes: 0

It is impossible for good or evil to last forever; and hence it follows that the evil having lasted so long, the good must be now nigh at hand. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

It is past all controversy that what costs dearest is, and ought to be, most valued. Votes: 0

It requires a long time to know anyone. Votes: 0

It will be seen in the frying of the eggs. Votes: 0

Journey over all the universe in a map, without the expense and fatigue of traveling, without suffering the inconveniences of heat, cold, hunger, and thirst. Votes: 0

Let every man look before he leaps. Votes: 0

Let every man mind his own business. Votes: 0

Let everyone turn himself around, and look at home, and he will find enough to do. Votes: 0

Let me leap out of the frying-pan into the fire; or, out of God's blessing into the warm sun. Votes: 0

Let the worst come to the worst. Votes: 0

Let us forget and forgive injuries. Votes: 0

Let us not throw the rope after the bucket. Votes: 0

Liberty ... is one of the most valuable blessings that Heaven has bestowed upon mankind. Votes: 0

Liberty is one of the most precious gifts which heaven has bestowed on man; with it we cannot compare the treasures which the earth contains or the sea conceals; for liberty, as for honor, we can and ought to risk our lives; and, on for the other hand, captivity is the greatest evil that can befall man. Votes: 0

Little said is soon amended. Votes: 0

Love is a power too strong to be overcome by anything but flight. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Love is invisible and comes and goes where it wants, without anyone asking about it. Votes: 0

Love not what you are but only what you may become. Votes: 0

Lovers are commonly industrious to make themselves uneasy. Votes: 0

Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world. Yet from this lesson thou will learn to avoid the frog's foolish ambition of swelling to rival the bigness of the ox. Votes: 0

Make yourself honey and the flies will devour you. Votes: 0

Man have to have friends even in hell. Votes: 0

Many count their chickens before they are hatched; and where they expect bacon, meet with broken bones. Votes: 0

Many littles make a much. Votes: 0

Men of great talents, whether poets or historians, seldom escape the attacks of those who, without ever favoring the world with any production of their own, take delight in criticising the works of others. Votes: 0

Mere flimflam stories, and nothing but shams and lies. Votes: 0

Miracle me no miracles. Votes: 0

My heart is wax molded as she pleases, but enduring as marble to retain. Votes: 0

My honor is dearer to me than my life. Votes: 0

My memory is so bad that many times I forget my own name. Votes: 0

Necessity urges desperate measures. Votes: 0

Never look for the birds of this year in the nests of the last. Votes: 0

No man is more than another unless he does more than another. Votes: 0

Nor has his death the world deceiv'd than his wondrous life surprise d; if he like a madman liv'd least he like a wise one dy'd. Votes: 0

Not with whom you are born, but with whom you are bred. Votes: 0

Nothing costs less nor is cheaper than compliments of civility. Votes: 0

Now, blessings light on him that first invented sleep!Ê It covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot.Ê It is the current coin that purchases all the pleasures of the world cheap, and the balance that sets the king and the shepherd, the fool and the wise man, even. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

One of the effects of fear is to disturb the senses and cause things to appear other than what they are. Votes: 0

One shouldn't talk of halters in the hanged man's house. Votes: 0

One swallow alone does not make a summer. Votes: 0

Other men's pains are easily borne. Votes: 0

Patience and shuffle the cards. Votes: 0

Poesy is a beauteous damsel, chaste, honourable, discreet, witty, retired, and who keeps herself within the limits of propriety. She is a friend of solitude; fountains entertain her, meadows console her, woods free her from ennui, flowers delight her; in short, she gives pleasure and instruction to all with whom she communicates. Votes: 0

Reading Don Quixote can be compared to an indefinite visit from your most impossible senior relative, with all his pranks, dirty habits, unstoppable reminiscences, and terrible cronies. When the experience is over, and the old boy checks out at last (on page 846 - the prose wedged tight, with no breaks for dialogue), you will shed tears all right; not tears of relief or regret but tears of pride. You made it, despite all that 'Don Quixote' could do. Votes: 0

Riches are able to solder up abundance of flaws. Votes: 0

Riches are of little avail in many of the calamities to which mankind are liable. Votes: 0

Roque...lined his men up and had them produce all the clothing, jewels, money, and other objects that they had stolen since the last time they had divided the spoils. Having made a hasty appraisal and reduced to terms of money those items that could not be divided, he split the whole into shares with such equity and exactitude that in not a single instance did he go beyond or fall short of a strict distributive justice. They were all well satisfied with the payment received, indeed they were quite well pleased; and Roque then turned to Don Quixote. Votes: 0

Sancho Panza by name is my own self, if I was not changed in my cradle. Votes: 0

Seek for good, but expect evil. Votes: 0

She fights and vanquishes in me, and I live and breathe in her, and I have life and being. Votes: 0

She wanted, with her fickleness, to make my destruction constant; I want, by trying to destroy myself, to satisfy her desire. Votes: 0

She who desires to see, desires also to be seen. Votes: 0

Since we have a good loaf, let us not look for cheesecakes. Votes: 0

Sing away sorrow, cast away care. Votes: 0

Sorrow was made for man, not for beasts; yet if men encourage melancholy too much, they become no better than beasts. Votes: 0

Soul of fibre and heart of oak. Votes: 0

Take away the cause, and the effect ceases. Votes: 0

Take away the motive, and you take away the sin. Votes: 0

Take my advice and live for a long, long time. Because the maddest thing a man can do is this life is to let himself die. Votes: 0

Tell me what company thou keepst, and I'll tell thee what thou art. Votes: 0

Thank you for nothing. Votes: 0

That which we are capable of feeling, we are capable of saying. Votes: 0

The absent feel and fear every ill. Votes: 0

The ass bears the load, but not the overload. Votes: 0

The ass will carry his load, but not a double load; ride not a free horse to death. Votes: 0

The beauty of some women has days and seasons, depending upon accidents which diminish or increase it; nay, the very passions of the mind naturally improve or impair it, and very often utterly destroy it. Votes: 0

The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the sum of his own works. Votes: 0

The cleverest character in comedy is the clown, for he who would make people take him for a fool, must not be one. Votes: 0

The eating. By a small sample we may judge of the whole piece.... Votes: 0

The fear thou art in, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "prevents thee from seeing or hearing correctly, for one of the effects of fear is to derange the senses and make things appear different from what they are; if thou art in such fear, withdraw to one side and leave me to myself, for alone I suffice to bring victory to that side to which I shall give my aid;" and so saying he gave Rocinante the spur, and putting the lance in rest, shot down the slope like a thunderbolt. Votes: 0

The foolish sayings of the rich pass for wise saws in society. Votes: 0

The guts carry the feet, not the feet the guts. Votes: 0

The journey is better than the inn". Votes: 0

The little birds have God for their caterer. Votes: 0

The man who fights for his ideals is alive. Votes: 0

The man who is prepared has his battle half fought. Votes: 0

The pen is the language of the soul; as the concepts that in it are generated, such will be its writings. Votes: 0

The pen is the tongue of the soul; as are the thoughts engendered there, so will be the things written. Votes: 0

The poet may say or sing, not as things were, but as they ought to have been; but the historian must pen them, not as they ought to have been, but as they really were. Votes: 0

The reason for the unreason with which you treat my reason , so weakens my reason that with reason I complain of your beauty. Votes: 0

The reputation of a woman may also be compared to a mirror of crystal, shining and bright, but liable to be sullied by every breath that comes near it. Votes: 0

The road to the inn is much better than the stay. Votes: 0

The stomach carries the heart, and not the heart the stomach. Votes: 0

The very remembrance of my former misfortune proves a new one to me. Votes: 0

The woman who is resolved to be respected can make herself be so even amidst an army of soldiers. Votes: 0

The wounds received in battle bestow honor, they do not take it away... Votes: 0

there are many hours and minutes between now and tomorrowand in any one of them-even in a minute,the house falls Votes: 0

There are men that will make you books, and turn them loose into the world, with as much dispatch as they would do a dish of fritters. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

There are two kinds of people in this world, my grandmother used to say: the Have's and the Have-not's, and she stuck to the Have's. And today, Señor Don Quixote, people are more interested in having than in knowing. An ass covered with gold makes a better impression than a horse with a packsaddle. Votes: 0

There is a remedy for everything but death; who, in spite of our teeth, will take us in his clutches. Votes: 0

There is a time for some things, and a time for all things; a time for great things, and a time for small things. Votes: 0

There is no book so bad...that it does not have something good in it. Votes: 0

There is no greater folly in the world than for a man to despair. Votes: 0

There is no proverb that is not true. Votes: 0

There is nothing costs less than civility. Votes: 0

There is remedy for all things except death - Don Quixote De La Mancha Votes: 0

There were but two families in the world, Have-much and Have-little. Votes: 0

There were no embraces, because where there is great love there is often little display of it. Votes: 0

They can expect nothing but their labor for their pains. - Cervantes Votes: 0

They must needs go whom the Devil drives. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

They who lose today may win tomorrow. Votes: 0

Think before thou speakest. Votes: 0

Those two fatal words, Mine and Thine. Votes: 0

Thou art a cat, and a rat, and a coward. Votes: 0

Thou camest out of thy mother's belly without government, thou hast liv'd hitherto without government, and thou mayst be carried to thy long home without government, when it shall please the Lord. How many people in this world live without government, yet do well enough, and are well look'd upon? Votes: 0

Thou hast seen nothing yet. Votes: 0

Though Gods attributes are equal, yet his mercy is more attractive and pleasing in our eyes than his justice. Votes: 0

Three things too much, and three too little are pernicious to man; to speak much, and know little; to spend much, and have little; to presume much, and be worth little. Votes: 0

Tis ill talking of halters in the house of a man that was hanged. Votes: 0

'Tis said of love that it sometimes goes, sometimes flies; runs with one, walks gravely with another; turns a third into ice, and sets a fourth in a flame: it wounds one, another it kills: like lightning it begins and ends in the same moment: it makes that fort yield at night which it besieged but in the morning; for there is no force able to resist it.... Votes: 0

'Tis the maddest trick a man can ever play in his whole life, to let his breath sneak out of his body without any more ado, and without so much as a rap o'er the pate, or a kick of the guts; to go out like the snuff of a farthing candle, and die merely of the mulligrubs, or the sullens. Votes: 0

To be good to the vile is to throw water into the sea. Votes: 0

To think that the affairs of this life always remain in the same state is a vain presumption; indeed they all seem to be perpetually changing and moving in a circular course. Spring is followed by summer, summer by autumn, and autumn by winter, which is again followed by spring, and so time continues its everlasting round. But the life of man is ever racing to its end, swifter than time itself, without hope of renewal, unless in the next that is limitless and infinite. Votes: 0

Tomorrow will be a new day. Votes: 0

Translation from one language to another is like viewing a piece of tapestry on the wrong side where though the figures are distinguishable yet there are so many ends and threads that the beauty and exactness of the work is obscured. Votes: 0

Troubles take wing for the man who can sing. Votes: 0

Truly I was born to be an example of misfortune, and a target at which the arrows of adversary are aimed. Votes: 0

Under a bad cloak there is often a good drinker Votes: 0

Until death it is all life Votes: 0

Urgent necessity prompts many to do things, at the very thoughts of which they perhaps would start at other times. Votes: 0

Urgent necessity prompts many to do things. Votes: 0

Virtue is persecuted by the wicked more than it is loved by the good. Votes: 0

We are all as God made us and frequently much worse. Votes: 0

We must not stand upon trifles. Votes: 0

We ought to love our Maker for His own sake, without either hope of good or fear of pain. Votes: 0

Well, now there's a remedy for everything except death. Votes: 0

Well, there's a remedy for all things but death, which will be sure to lay us flat one time or other. Votes: 0

Well-gotten wealth may lose itself, but the ill-gotten loses its master also. Votes: 0

What a man has, so much he is sure of. Votes: 0

What is bought is cheaper than a gift. Votes: 0

When a man says, "Get out of my house! what would you have with my wife?" there is no answer to be made. Votes: 0

When God sends the dawn, he sends it for all. Votes: 0

When good luck knocks at the door, let him in and keep him there. Votes: 0

When in doubt, lean to the side of #"Ž mercy . Votes: 0

When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical may be madness. To surrender dreams, this may be madness ...Maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be. Votes: 0

When one door is shut, another opens. Votes: 0

When the head aches, all the members partake of the pain. Votes: 0

When we are asleep, we are all equal. Votes: 0

When we leave this world, and are laid in the earth, the prince walks as narrow a path as the day-laborer. Votes: 0

Where envy reigns virtue can't exist, and generosity doesn't go with meanness. Votes: 0

Where one door shuts another opens. Votes: 0

Where there's music there can be no evil. Votes: 0

Whether it's the pot that hits the rock or the rock that hits the pot , it's the pot that will break every time Votes: 0

Whoever is ignorant is vulgar. Votes: 0

Whom God loves, his house is sweet to him. Votes: 0

Wine in excess keeps neither secrets nor promises. Votes: 0

Wine taken in moderation never does any harm. Votes: 0

Wit and humor belong to genius alone. Votes: 0

Wit and humor do not reside in slow minds. Votes: 0

With life many things are remedied. Votes: 0

Woman's advice has little value, but he who won't take it is a fool. Votes: 0

You are a devil at everything, and there is no kind of thing in the 'versal world but what you can turn your hand into. Votes: 0

You are a king by your own fireside, as much as any monarch in his throne. Votes: 0

You cannot eat your cake and have your cake. Votes: 0

You must not think, sir, to catch old birds with chaff. Votes: 0

How will he who does not know how to govern himself know how to govern others? Votes: 0

I know who I am and who I may be, if I choose. Votes: 0

I say that good painters imitated nature; but that bad ones vomited it. Votes: 0

Old, that's an affront no woman can well bear. Votes: 0

The wise hand does not all the tongue dictates. Votes: 0

One should not talk of hatters in the house of the hanged. Votes: 0

Every man was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Votes: 0

As ill-luck would have it. Votes: 0

Whether the pitcher hits the stone or the stone hits the pitcher, it goes ill with the pitcher. Votes: 0

Maybe the greatest madness is to see life as it is rather than what it could be. Votes: 0

There are but few proverbial sayings that are not true, for they are all drawn from experience itself, which is the mother of all sciences. Votes: 0

Controlling my temper is important, ... Sometimes it's hard, but I try. Votes: 0