Quotes by Cervantes, Miguel De

"'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   

"Patience and shuffle the cards."

Cervantes, Miguel De on patience   

"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   

"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   

"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
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"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   

"No man is more than another unless he does more than another."

Cervantes, Miguel De on service
3 fans of this quote   

"A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world, as a public indecency."

Cervantes, Miguel De on sin   

"By such innovations are languages enriched, when the words are adopted by the multitude, and naturalized by custom."

Cervantes, Miguel De on slang   

"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   

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

Cervantes, Miguel De on bragging   

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

Cervantes, Miguel De on causes   

"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   

"I have always heard, Sancho, that doing good to base fellows is like throwing water into the sea."

Cervantes, Miguel De on charity   

"One shouldn't talk of halters in the hanged man's house."

Cervantes, Miguel De on tact and tactfulness   

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

Cervantes, Miguel De on tact and tactfulness   

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

Cervantes, Miguel De on truth   

"Truth will rise above falsehood as oil above water."

Cervantes, Miguel De on truth
3 fans of this quote   

"True valor lies between cowardice and rashness."

Cervantes, Miguel De on valor
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"That which costs little is less valued."

Cervantes, Miguel De on value   

"The knowledge of yourself will preserve you from vanity."

Cervantes, Miguel De on vanity
5 fans of this quote   

"The gratification of wealth is not found in mere possession or in lavish expenditure, but in its wise application."

Cervantes, Miguel De on wealth   

"God bears with the wicked, but not forever."

Cervantes, Miguel De on wickedness