Miguel de Cervantes Quotes
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The most perceptive character in a play is the fool, because the man who wishes to seem simple cannot possibly be a simpleton.
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To withdraw is not to run away, and to stay is no wise action, when there's more reason to fear than to hope.
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Never look for birds of this year in the nests of the last.
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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.
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Blessings on him, who invented sleep.
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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.
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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.
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Truth will rise above falsehood as oil above water.
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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.
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He who sings frightens away his ills.
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What is bought is cheaper than a gift.
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I'll turn over a new leaf.
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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.
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God exalts the man who humbles himself.
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"From what I have seen here," remarked Sancho, "justice is so good a thing that even robbers find it necessary."
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Spare your breath to cool your porridge.
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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.
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The darts of love are blunted by maiden modesty.
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Arms are my ornaments, warfare my repose.
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One swallow alone does not make a summer.
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Death eats up all things, both the young lamb and old sheep; and I have heard our parson say, death values a prince no more than a clown.
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Nor has his death the world deceived than his wondrous life surprised; if he like a madman lived least he like a wise one died.
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Great persons are able to do great kindnesses.
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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.