Top 100 Cervantes Saavedra Quotes
#2. As soon as Don Quixote had read the inscription on the parchment he perceived clearly that it referred to the disenchantment of Dulcinea, and returning hearty thanks to heaven that he
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#3. 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
#4. Mind, Sancho, I do not say that a proverb aptly brought in is objectionable; but to pile up and string together proverbs at random makes conversation dull and vulgar.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#5. I have vanquished giants, and I have sent villains and malefactors to her, but where can they find her if she has been enchanted and transformed into the ugliest peasant girl anyone can imagine?
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#12. 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
#16. Believe me, fair lady, you may call yourself fortunate in having in this castle of yours sheltered my person, which is such that if I do not myself praise it, it is because of what is commonly said, that self-praise debaseth;
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#18. To retire is not to flee, and there is no wisdom in waiting when danger outweighs hope, and it is the part of wise men to preserve themselves to-day for to-morrow, and not risk all in one day.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#23. 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.
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#24. The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always surfaces above lies, as oil floats on water.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#26. Happy the age, happy the time, to which the ancients gave the name of golden, not because in that fortunate age the gold so coveted in this our iron one was gained without toil, but because they that lived in it knew not the two words "mine" and "thine"!
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#33. 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
#34. 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.
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#36. 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
#37. 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
#41. Front of them all came a wooden castle drawn by four wild men, all clad in ivy and hemp stained green, and looking so natural that they nearly terrified Sancho. On the front of the castle and on each of the
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#42. In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#43. The sadness of the heart rises to the face, and in the eyes may be read the history of that which passes in the soul.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#45. Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#46. 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
#50. 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
#54. Ye love-smitten host, know that to Dulcinea only I am dough and sugar-paste, flint to all others; for her I am honey, for you aloes. For
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#57. 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.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#58. Perceived a cart covered with royal flags coming along the road they were travelling; and persuaded that this must be some new adventure,
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#62. I betook myself to these solitudes, resolved to end here the life I hated as if it were my mortal enemy. But fate would not rid me of it, contenting itself with robbing me of my reason,
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#63. Now, tell me which is the greater deed, raising a dead man or killing a giant?" "The answer is self-evident," responded Don Quixote. "It is greater to raise a dead man.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#64. Heaven send us better times! There is nothing but plotting and counter-plotting, undermining and counter-mining in this world.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#65. 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
#66. 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
#68. The village to sell (saving your presence) four pigs, and between dues and cribbings they got out of me little less than the worth of them. As
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#69. 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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#70. She wanted, with her fickleness, to make my destruction constant; I want, by trying to destroy myself, to satisfy her desire.
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#71. 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.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#75. But to give him anything to drink was impossible, or would have been so had not the landlord bored a reed, and putting one end in his mouth poured the wine into him through the other; all which he bore with patience rather than sever the ribbons of his helmet.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#77. It is by rugged paths like these they go That scale the heights of immortality, Unreached by those that falter here below.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#79. Sancho, just as you want people to believe what you have seen in the sky, I want you to believe what I saw in the Cave of Montesinos. And that is all I have to say.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#80. 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.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#81. 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
#83. Didn't i tell you they were only windmills? And someone with windmills on the brain could have failed to see that!
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#85. 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
#86. Consider, that no jewel upon earth is comparable to a woman of virtue and honor; and, that the honor of the sex consists in the fair characters they maintain.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#87. And letting out thirty groans and sixty sighs and one hundred and twenty curses on the head of the person who'd brought him there, he hauled himself to his feet,
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#88. In the shadow of feigned cripples and false wounds come the strong arms of thieves and very healthy drunkards.
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#90. Love is invisible, and comes in and goes out as he likes, without anyone calling him to account for what he does.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#93. 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 ...
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#94. According to an ancient and common tradition in the kingdom of Great Britain, this king did not die, but was transformed into a raven by the art of enchantment and, in the course of time, he shall return to rule again and regain his kingdom and his scepter.
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#95. Thou knowest that my voice is sweet, That is if thou dost hear; And I am moulded in a form Somewhat below the mean.
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
#97. Hear me now, o thou bleak and unbearable world
Thou art base and debauched as can be.
And a knight with his banners all bravely unfurled
Now hurls down his gauntlet to thee
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra