Spanish Author Quotes

Miguel de Cervantes

Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Lope de Vega

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Antonio Machado

Juan Ramón Jiménez

Sometimes I think that Darwin made a mistake and that in fact man is descended from the pig, because eight out of every ten members of the human race are swine, and as crooked as a hog's tail.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Try not to turn your life into a race, least of all an obstacle race.

José Bergamín

When debts are not paid because they cannot be paid, the best thing to do is not talk about them, and shuffle the cards again.

Camilo José Cela

In short, virtue cannot live where envy reigns, nor liberality subsist with niggardliness.

Miguel de Cervantes

Beyond living and dreaming there is something more important: waking up.

Antonio Machado

We can be stabbed without being flattered, but we're rarely flattered without being stabbed.

Francisco de Quevedo

Sorrow shatters my heart; And men distress it with blame, Because it follows love.

Never mind, at some time,
God knows where,
we see the faces
uncovered.

Juan José Cuadros Pérez

What a shame that love has no dictionary in which to ascertain when pride is simply pride and when it's 'dignity'!

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

War rages, horrid war
Even in our bones; our double nature sounds
With armed discord.

The chief characteristic of folly is that it mistakes itself for wisdom.

Fray Luis de León

Let me go warm and merry still;
And let the world laugh, an' it will.

Luis de Góngora

Speak no evil of women; I tell thee the meanest of them deserves respect; for of women do we not all come?

Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Island of grace, of freshness and of joy, Golden Age of children; always I could find you in my life, a sea of mourning; let your breeze lend me its lyre high and sometimes senseless like the trill of the lark in the white sun of morning.
I have never written nor will I ever write anything for children, because I believe the child can read the books that grownups read, with some few exceptions that come to everyone's mind. There are of course exceptions too for men and for women.

Juan Ramón Jiménez

Kings are the judges of the earth, and sages the judges of kings.

Solomon ibn Gabirol

I commend you, Postumus, for kissing me with only half your lip; you may, however, if you please, withhold even the half of this half. Are you inclined to grant me a boon still greater, and even inexpressible? Keep this whole half entirely to yourself, Postumus.

When one door closes, fortune will usually open another.

Fernando de Rojas

Through his honor I conquered him. For these peasants carry their honor in their hands so that they may constantly consult it; this same honor that once felt so much at home in the city but now has taken refuge in a more rural setting.

Tirso de Molina

Alas, I was wrong when I spoke those word: you are so skilled that you have been able to take even my fear away.

Pedro Muñoz Seca

Love is a mighty engineer, Not Archimedes' skill could add One jot or title to the power Of the machines that Love controls.

Only virtue has powerful arguments against pessimism.

The land of easy mathematics where he who works adds up and he who retires subtracts.

Had I mentioned to someone around 1795 that I planned to write, anyone with any sense would have told me to write for two hours every day, with or without inspiration. Their advice would have enabled me to benefit from the ten years of my life I totally wasted waiting for inspiration.

Enrique Vila-Matas

I have an immensity which shivers in the oceans,
being, as I am, only a little fountain, small as an eye.

Juan Antonio Villacañas

I was realizing, for the first time, that everything goes on, turns gray, is ruined in the living. That there is no end to our story until death comes and the body decays...