“Those who'll play with cats must expect to be scratched.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 8.
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Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes:
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Famous Miguel de Cervantes Quotes
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 4.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 8.
“I tell thee, that is Mambrino's helmet.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 7.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 35.
Miguel de Cervantes Quotes about the world
“Give me but that, and let the world rub; there I'll stick.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 7.
“It takes all sorts (to make a world)”
de todos ha de haber en el mundo (literally, “There must be of all [types] in the world”)
Ch. 6 / El ingenioso caballero Don Quijote de la Mancha, Capítulo VI
Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book IV
“There are only two families in the world, the Haves and the Have-Nots.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 20.
“Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 42.
“The best sauce in the world is hunger.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 5.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 11.
Miguel de Cervantes: Trending quotes
“For if he like a madman lived,
At least he like a wise one died.”
Don Quixote's epitaph
Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book IV
“I never saw a more dreadful battle in my born days.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 8.
“Here is the devil-and-all to pay.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 10.
Miguel de Cervantes Quotes
Sancho to Don Quixote, in Ch. 9, Peter Anthony Motteux translation (1701).
Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III
Context: To withdraw is not to run away, and to stay is no wise action when there is more reason to fear than to hope. 'Tis the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not venture all his eggs in one basket. And though I am but a clown, or a bumpkin, as you may say, yet I would have you to know I know what is what, and have always taken care of the main chance...
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 33, as translated by Pierre Antoine Motteux in The History of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha (1701)
Variant translations:
I'm kind-hearted by nature, and full of compassion for the poor; there's no stealing the loaf from him who kneads and bakes; and by my faith it won't do to throw false dice with me; I am an old dog, and I know all about 'tus, tus;' I can be wide-awake if need be, and I don't let clouds come before my eyes, for I know where the shoe pinches me; I say so, because with me the good will have support and protection, and the bad neither footing nor access. And it seems to me that, in governments, to make a beginning is everything; and maybe, after having been governor a fortnight, I'll take kindly to the work and know more about it than the field labour I have been brought up to.
Honesty's the best policy.
Context: I was ever charitable and good to the poor, and scorn to take the bread out of another man's mouth. On the other side, by our Lady, they shall play me no foul play. I am an old cur at a crust, and can sleep dog-sleep when I list. I can look sharp as well as another, and let me alone to keep the cobwebs out of my eyes. I know where the shoe wrings me. I will know who and who is together. 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.
“Time ripens all things. No man is born wise. Bishops are made of men and not of stones.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 33. Note: "Time ripens all things" is the translator's interpolation and does not appear in the original Spanish text.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 33, as translated by Pierre Antoine Motteux in The History of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha (1701)
Variant translations:
I'm kind-hearted by nature, and full of compassion for the poor; there's no stealing the loaf from him who kneads and bakes; and by my faith it won't do to throw false dice with me; I am an old dog, and I know all about 'tus, tus;' I can be wide-awake if need be, and I don't let clouds come before my eyes, for I know where the shoe pinches me; I say so, because with me the good will have support and protection, and the bad neither footing nor access. And it seems to me that, in governments, to make a beginning is everything; and maybe, after having been governor a fortnight, I'll take kindly to the work and know more about it than the field labour I have been brought up to.
Honesty's the best policy.
Context: I was ever charitable and good to the poor, and scorn to take the bread out of another man's mouth. On the other side, by our Lady, they shall play me no foul play. I am an old cur at a crust, and can sleep dog-sleep when I list. I can look sharp as well as another, and let me alone to keep the cobwebs out of my eyes. I know where the shoe wrings me. I will know who and who is together. 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.
“The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the son of his own works.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book I, Ch. 4.
“All is not gold that glisters.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 33.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 26.
“It is a common proverb, beauteous princess, that diligence is the mother of good fortune.”
Variant: Diligence is the mother of good fortune
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 19.
La pluma es la lengua del alma: cuales fueren los conceptos que en ella se engendraren, tales serán sus escritos.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 16, as translated by Henry Edward Watts (1895).
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 8.
“Are we to mark this day with a white or a black stone?”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 10.
“You are come off now with a whole skin.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 5.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book I, Ch. 2.
“You are taking the wrong sow by the ear.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 4.
“As they use to say, spick and span new.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 58.
“You're leaping over the hedge before you come to the stile.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 4.
“Absence, that common cure of love.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 10.
“It is good to live and learn.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 32.
“I think it a very happy accident.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 58.
“They had best not stir the rice, though it sticks to the pot.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 38.
“There is no book so bad," said the bachelor, "but something good may be found in it.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 3.
“Within a stone's throw of it.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 9.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 36.
“He has an oar in every man's boat, and a finger in every pie.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 22.
“As well look for a needle in a bottle of hay.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 10.
Y así, del poco dormir y del mucho leer, se le secó el cerebro, de manera que vino a perder el juicio.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book I, Ch. 1 (tr. Samuel Putnam).
“In the night all cats are gray.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 33.
“Sancho Panza by name, is my own self, if I was not changed in my cradle.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 30.
“Which I have earned with the sweat of my brows.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book I, Ch. 4.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 11.
“Sing away sorrow, cast away care.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 8.
“A good name is better than riches.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 33.
“I will take my corporal oath on it.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 10.
“When thou art at Rome, do as they do at Rome.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 54.
“Let none presume to tell me that the pen is preferable to the sword.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 10.
“Well, now, there's a remedy for everything except death.”
Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Unplaced as yet by chapter
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 13.
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 10.
“Plain as the nose on a man's face.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 4.
“Let every man mind his own business.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 8.
“When a man says, "Get out of my house! what would you have with my wife?"”
there is no answer to be made.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 43.
“Great persons are able to do great kindnesses.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 32.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 3.
“That's the nature of women … not to love when we love them, and to love when we love them not.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 6.
“Ready to split his sides with laughing.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 13.
“He had a face like a benediction.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book I, Ch. 6.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book I, Ch. 5.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book II, Ch. 4.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 36.
