Miguel de Cervantes Quotes

215 Sourced Quotes

There are only two families in the world, as a grandmother of mine used to say: the haves and the have-nots.

Miguel de Cervantes
Tis an old saying, the Devil lurks behind the cross. All is not gold that glitters. From the tail of the plough, Bamba was made King of Spain; and from his silks and riches was Rodrigo cast to be devoured by the snakes.

Miguel de Cervantes
As well look for a needle in a bottle of hay.

Miguel de Cervantes
'Tis ill talking of halters in the house of a man that was hanged.

Miguel de Cervantes
History is in a manner a sacred thing, so far as it contains truth; for where truth is, the supreme Father of it may also be said to be, at least, inasmuch as concerns truth.

Miguel de Cervantes
But do not give it to a lawyer's clerk to write, for they use a legal hand that Satan himself will not understand.

Miguel de Cervantes
How will he who does not know how to govern himself know how to govern others?

Miguel de Cervantes
Historians ought to be precise, faithful, and unprejudiced; and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should make them swerve from the way of truth.

Miguel de Cervantes
Be a terror to the butchers, that they may be fair in their weight; and keep hucksters and fraudulent dealers in awe, for the same reason.

Miguel de Cervantes
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
He's [Don Quixote's] a muddled fool, full of lucid intervals.

Miguel de Cervantes
For men may prove and use their friends, as the poet expresses it, usque ad aras, meaning that a friend should not be required to act contrary to the law of God.

Miguel de Cervantes
I never saw a more dreadful battle in my born days.

Miguel de Cervantes
Do not eat garlic or onions; for their smell will reveal that you are a peasant.

Miguel de Cervantes
Experience, the universal Mother of Sciences.

Miguel de Cervantes
Those who'll play with cats must expect to be scratched.

Miguel de Cervantes
Whether the pitcher hits the stone or the stone hits the pitcher, it goes ill with the pitcher.

Miguel de Cervantes
They can expect nothing but their labor for their pains.

Miguel de Cervantes
Here lies a gentleman bold Who was so very brave He went to lengths untold, And on the brink of the grave Death had on him no hold. By the world he set small store— He frightened it to the core— Yet somehow, by Fate's plan, Though he'd lived a crazy man, When he died he was sane once more.

Miguel de Cervantes
By God and upon my conscience, said the devil, I never observed it, for my mind is occupied with so many different things that I was forgetting the main thing I came about. This demon must be an honest fellow and a good Christian, said Sancho; for if he wasn't he wouldn't swear by God and his conscience; I feel sure now there must be good souls even in hell itself.

Miguel de Cervantes
Where envy reigns virtue can't exist, and generosity doesn't go with meanness.

Miguel de Cervantes
We ought to love our Maker for His own sake, without either hope of good or fear of pain.

Miguel de Cervantes
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
Don Quixote followed nature, and being satisfied with his first sleep, did not solicit more. As for Sancho, he never wanted a second, for the first lasted him from night to morning, indicating a sound body and a mind free from care; but his master, being unable to sleep himself awakened him, saying, "I am amazed, Sancho, at the torpor of thy soul; it seems as if thou wert made of marble or brass, insensible of emotion or sentiment!...

Miguel de Cervantes
Does the devil possess you? You're leaping over the hedge before you come at the stile.

Miguel de Cervantes