"Captivity is the greatest of all evils that can befall one."

Cervantes, Miguel De on slavery   

"Now blessings light on him that first invented this same sleep: it covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; 'Tis meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot. 'Tis 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. There is only one thing that I dislike in sleep; 'Tis that it resembles death; there's very little difference between a man in his first sleep, and a man in his last sleep."

Cervantes, Miguel De on sleep   

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

Cervantes, Miguel De on action   

"Take away the cause, and the effect ceases."

Cervantes, Miguel De on causes   

"Mere flimflam stories, and nothing but shams and lies."

Cervantes, Miguel De on bragging   

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

Cervantes, Miguel De on caution
3 fans of this quote   

"Be slow of tongue and quick of eye."

Cervantes, Miguel De on caution
5 fans of this quote   

"Delay always breeds danger; and to protract a great design is often to ruin it."

Cervantes, Miguel De on procrastination   

"Proverbs are short sentences drawn from long experience."

Cervantes, Miguel De on proverbs
6 fans of this quote   

"A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience."

Cervantes, Miguel De on proverbs   

"I believe there's no proverb but what is true; they are all so many sentences and maxims drawn from experience, the universal mother of sciences."

Cervantes, Miguel De on proverbs   

"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."

Cervantes, Miguel De on proverbs   

"Hold you there, neither a strange hand nor my own, neither heavy nor light shall touch my bum."

Cervantes, Miguel De on punishment   

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

Cervantes, Miguel De on creation   

"Well, now there's a remedy for everything except death."

Cervantes, Miguel De on remedies   

"The greatest foes, and whom we must chiefly combat, are within."

Cervantes, Miguel De on self-conflict   

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

Cervantes, Miguel De on servants   

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

Cervantes, Miguel De on misers and misery   

"Alas! all music jars when the soul's out of tune."

Cervantes, Miguel De on music   

"Good painters imitate nature, bad ones spew it up."

Cervantes, Miguel De on painters and painting   

"No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly."

Cervantes, Miguel De on parents and parenting
3 fans of this quote   

"And for the citation of so many authors, 'tis the easiest thing in nature. Find out one of these books with an alphabetical index, and without any farther ceremony, remove it verbatim into your own... there are fools enough to be thus drawn into an opinion of the work; at least, such a flourishing train of attendants will give your book a fashionable air, and recommend it for sale."

Cervantes, Miguel De on plagiarism   

"Patience and shuffle the cards."

Cervantes, Miguel De on patience   

"To be prepared is half the victory."

Cervantes, Miguel De on planning   

"Thou hast seen nothing yet."

Cervantes, Miguel De on possibilities   

"A blot in thy escutcheon to all futurity."

Cervantes, Miguel De on posterity   

"He preaches well that lives well."

Cervantes, Miguel De on preachers and preaching   

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

Cervantes, Miguel De on law and lawyers   

"Laziness never arrived at the attainment of a good wish."

Cervantes, Miguel De on laziness   

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

Cervantes, Miguel De on leadership   

"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."

Cervantes, Miguel De on learning   

"She fights and vanquishes in me, and I live and breathe in her, and I have life and being."

Cervantes, Miguel De on life   

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

Cervantes, Miguel De on acting and actors   

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

Cervantes, Miguel De on love
6 fans of this quote   

"'Tis said of love that it sometimes goes, sometimes flies; runs with one, walks gravely with another; turns a third into ice, and sets a fourth in a flame: it wounds one, another it kills: like lightning it begins and ends in the same moment: it makes that fort yield at night which it besieged but in the morning; for there is no force able to resist it."

Cervantes, Miguel De on love
14 fans of this quote   

"One who has not only the four S's, which are required in every good lover, but even the whole alphabet; as for example... Agreeable, Bountiful, Constant, Dutiful, Easy, Faithful, Gallant, Honorable, Ingenious, Kind, Loyal, Mild, Noble, Officious, Prudent, Quiet, Rich, Secret, True, Valiant, Wise; the X indeed, is too harsh a letter to agree with him, but he is Young and Zealous."

Cervantes, Miguel De on love
3 fans of this quote   

"Miracle me no miracles."

Cervantes, Miguel De on miracles   

"For historians ought to be precise, truthful, and quite unprejudiced, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should cause them to swerve from the path of truth, whose mother is history, the rival of time, the depository of great actions, the witness of what is past, the example and instruction of the present, the monitor of the future."

Cervantes, Miguel De on history and historians   

"You are a king by your own fireside, as much as any monarch in his throne."

Cervantes, Miguel De on home   

"A person dishonored is worst than dead."

Cervantes, Miguel De on honor
3 fans of this quote