Cervantes Quotes

I drink when I have occasion, and sometimes when I have no occasion.

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

Let every man mind his own business.

All sorrows are less with bread.

When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies?

The man who is prepared has his battle half fought.

Take away the cause, and the effect ceases.

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

A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.

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

Since we have a good loaf, let us not look for cheesecakes.

Be not under the dominion of thine own will; it is the vice of the ignorant, who vainly presume on their own understanding.

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

There's no sauce in the world like hunger.

History is the depository of great actions, the witness of what is past, the example and instructor of the present, and monitor to the future.

The stomach carries the heart, and not the heart the stomach.

I'll turn over a new leaf.

You cannot eat your cake and have your cake.

Wit and humor do not reside in slow minds.

Truth indeed rather alleviates than hurts, and will always bear up against falsehood, as oil does above water.

Many go out for wool, and come home shorn themselves.

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

A closed mouth catches no flies.

Great expectations are better than a poor possession.

Blessings on him, who invented sleep.

The worst reconciliation is better than the best divorce.

The eating. By a small sample we may judge of the whole piece.

Be slow of tongue and quick of eye.

Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them.

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

There is no remembrance which time does not obliterate, nor pain which death does not terminate.

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

For neither good nor evil can last for ever; and so it follows that as evil has lasted a long time, good must now be close at hand.

Every man is the son of his own works.

The cleverest character in comedy is the clown, for he who would make people take him for a fool, must not be one.

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

He who gives early gives twice.

Faint heart ne'er won fair lady.

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

A Man Without Honor is Worse than Dead.

One of the effects of fear is to disturb the senses and cause things to appear other than what they are.

There is also this benefit in brag, that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor him by all means, draw it all out, and hold him to it.

For let us women be never so ill-favored, I imagine that we are always delighted to hear ourselves called handsome.

Treason pleases, but not the traitor.

An honest man's word is as good as his bond.

Every tooth in a man's head is more valuable than a diamond.

Thou hast seen nothing yet.

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.

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

Fair and softly goes far.