Quotes By Miguel De Cervantes

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.

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

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

He had a face like a blessing.

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

There are only two families in the world, my old grandmother used to say, the Haves and the Have-nots.

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

Our greatest foes, and whom we must chiefly combat, are within.

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

God bears with the wicked, but not forever.

Never stand begging for that which you have the power to earn.

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

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.

The most difficult character in comedy is that of the fool, and he must be no simpleton that plays that part.

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.

To be prepared is half the victory.

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

Every man is the son of his own works.

Laziness never arrived at the attainment of a good wish.

That's the nature of women, not to love when we love them, and to love when we love them not.

One of the most considerable advantages the great have over their inferiors is to have servants as good as themselves.

He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses his courage loses all.

Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.

When thou art at Rome, do as they do at Rome.

A closed mouth catches no flies.

True valor lies between cowardice and rashness.

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

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

Fair and softly goes far.

Our hours in love have wings; in absence, crutches.