Miguel de Cervantes's Quotes

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

Man appoints, and God disappoints.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thou hast seen nothing yet.

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

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

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

True valor lies between cowardice and rashness.

Virtue is the truest nobility.

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

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

When thou art at Rome, do as they do at Rome.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

A closed mouth catches no flies.

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

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

God bears with the wicked, but not forever.

Truth will rise above falsehood as oil above water.

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

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

A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.

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

He had a face like a blessing.

The knowledge of yourself will preserve you from vanity.

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

Fair and softly goes far.

No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly.

Our hours in love have wings; in absence, crutches.

To be prepared is half the victory.