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Miguel de Cervantes Quotes
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Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish writer who is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. His novel Don Quixote has been translated into over 140 languages and dialects; it is, after the Bible, the most-translated book in the world.Don Quixote, a classic of Western literature, is sometimes considered both the first modern novel and the best work of fiction ever written. Cervantes' influence on the Spanish language has been so great that the language is often called la lengua de Cervantes . He has also been dubbed El príncipe de los ingenios .In 1569, in forced exile from Castile, Cervantes moved to Rome, where he worked as chamber assistant of a cardinal. Then he enlisted as a soldier in a Spanish Navy infantry regiment and continued his military life until 1575, when he was captured by Barbary pirates. After five years of captivity, he was released on payment of a ransom by his parents and the Trinitarians, a Catholic religious order, and he returned to his family in Madrid.

In 1585, Cervantes published La Galatea, a pastoral novel. He worked as a purchasing agent for the Spanish Armada and later as a tax collector for the government. In 1597, discrepancies in his accounts for three years previous landed him in the Crown Jail of Seville.

In 1605, Cervantes was in Valladolid when the immediate success of the first part of his Don Quixote, published in Madrid, signalled his return to the literary world. In 1607, he settled in Madrid, where he lived and worked until his death. During the last nine years of his life, Cervantes solidified his reputation as a writer, publishing Novelas ejemplares in 1613, Viaje del Parnaso in 1614, and Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses and the second part of Don Quixote in 1615. His last work, Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda , was published posthumously in 1617. Wikipedia  

✵ 29. September 1547 – 22. April 1616   •   Other names Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra, Saavedra Miguel De Cervantes
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Miguel de Cervantes: 178   quotes 79   likes

Miguel de Cervantes Quotes

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

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 23.

Art

“The more thou stir it, the worse it will be.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 6.

“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.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 23.

Pleasure

“Heaven's help is better than early rising.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 34.

Help

“Every man is as Heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Cada uno es como Dios le hizo, y aún peor muchas veces.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 4.

“Those two fatal words, Mine and Thine.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book II, Ch. 3.

“Let the worst come to the worst.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 5.

“The very remembrance of my former misfortune proves a new one to me.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 10.

“Many count their chickens before they are hatched; and where they expect bacon, meet with broken bones.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 55.

“Let every man look before he leaps.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 14.

“Liberty … is one of the most valuable blessings that Heaven has bestowed upon mankind.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 58.

“You may as well expect pears from an elm.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 40.

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

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 21.

Law

“Rome was not built in a day.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 71.

“The charging of his enemy was but the work of a moment.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book I, Ch. 8.

“After meat comes mustard; or, like money to a starving man at sea, when there are no victuals to be bought with it.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 8.

Money , Sea

“I can tell where my own shoe pinches me; and you must not think, sir, to catch old birds with chaff.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 5.

Shoe

“He … got the better of himself, and that's the best kind of victory one can wish for.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book IV, Ch. 72.

Victory

“She may guess what I should perform in the wet, if I do so much in the dry.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 11.

“Sit there, clod-pate!" cried he; "for let me sit wherever I will, that will still be the upper end, and the place of worship to thee.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 31.

“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.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Unplaced as yet by chapter, Ch. 11.

Men , God

“When the head aches, all the members partake of the pains.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 2.

Pain

“Remember the old saying, "Faint heart ne'er won fair lady."”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 10.

Heart

“Good wits jump; 45 a word to the wise is enough.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Variant: Good wits jump; 45 a word to the wise is enough.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 38.

“Experience, the universal Mother of Sciences.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 7.

Universe , Science

“The proof of the pudding is the eating.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 24.

“It is past all controversy that what costs dearest is, and ought to be, most valued.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Chap 11.
Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV

Past

“Didn't I tell you, Don Quixote, sir, to turn back, for they were not armies you were going to attack, but flocks of sheep?”

Miguel de Cervantes

Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Unplaced as yet by chapter

“He is as mad as a March hare.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 33.

Madness

“In some village in La Mancha, whose name I do not care to recall, there dwelt not so long ago a gentleman of the type wont to keep an unused lance, an old shield, a skinny old horse, and a greyhound for racing.”

Miguel de Cervantes

En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no hace mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book I, Ch. 1.

Horse

“You cannot eat your cake and have your cake; 48 and store 's no sore.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 43.

“From pro's and con's they fell to a warmer way of disputing.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 10.

Way

“There is no love lost between us.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Variant: There is no love lost, sir.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 33.

Love

“They can expect nothing but their labour for their pains.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Prologue

Pain

“It will grieve me so to the heart, that I shall cry my eyes out.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Variant: It will grieve me so to the heart, that I shall cry my eyes out.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 11.

Heart , Cry

“They must needs go whom the Devil drives.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 4.

“There's not the least thing can be said or done, but people will talk and find fault.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book II, Ch. 4.

People

“Now, blessings light on him that first invented this same sleep! 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. 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.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 68.

Pleasure , World , Fools , Drink

“I must speak the truth, and nothing but the truth.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 3.

Truth

“I find my familiarity with thee has bred contempt.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Unplaced as yet by chapter, Ch. 6.

“There is a remedy for all things but death, which will be sure to lay us out flat some time or other.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 10.

Death , Time

“A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world as a public indecency.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 22.

World

“I must follow him through thick and thin.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 33.

“I know what's what, and have always taken care of the main chance.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 9.

Chance

“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.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 3.

Men , Books , World

“Think before thou speakest.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 3.

Thinking

“A close mouth catches no flies.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 11.

“The ease of my burdens, the staff of my life.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 9.

Life

“My honor is dearer to me than my life.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 1.

Life

“Ill luck, you know, seldom comes alone.”

Miguel de Cervantes

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 6.