Miguel de Cervantes Quotes

215 Sourced Quotes

I was so free with him as not to mince the matter.

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

Miguel de Cervantes
The pen is the tongue of the soul; as are the thoughts engendered there, so will be the things written.

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

Miguel de Cervantes
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.

Miguel de Cervantes
Fortune may have yet a better success in reserve for you and they who lose today may win tomorrow.

Miguel de Cervantes
Love is a power too strong to be overcome by anything but flight.

Miguel de Cervantes
No man is more than another unless he does more than another.

Miguel de Cervantes
I find my familiarity with thee has bred contempt.

Miguel de Cervantes
Time ripens all things. No man is born wise. Bishops are made of men and not of stones.

Miguel de Cervantes
There's no sauce in the world like hunger.

Miguel de Cervantes
When a man says, "Get out of my house! what would you have with my wife?" there is no answer to be made.

Miguel de Cervantes
Many a time we look for one thing, and light on another.

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

Miguel de Cervantes
He preaches well that lives well, quoth Sancho; that's all the divinity I understand.

Miguel de Cervantes
If thou takest virtue for the rule of life, and valuest thyself upon acting in all things comfortably thereto, thou wilt have no cause to envy lords and princes; for blood is inherited, but virtue is common property, and may be acquired by all; it has, moreover, an intrinsic worth, which blood has not.

Miguel de Cervantes
Neither will I make myself anybody's laughingstock.

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

Miguel de Cervantes
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
Experience itself, the mother of all the sciences.

Miguel de Cervantes
There is no jewel in the world so valuable as a chaste and virtuous woman.

Miguel de Cervantes
"He preaches well that lives well," quoth Sancho, "that's all the divinity I can understand."

Miguel de Cervantes
By a small sample we may judge of the whole piece.

Miguel de Cervantes
My thoughts ran a wool-gathering; and I did like the countryman who looked for his ass while he was mounted on his back.

Miguel de Cervantes
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