Miguel de Cervantes
novelist, playwright, poet, lyricist, soldier, writer, accountant, tax collector, author
Read on Wikipedia1547 – 1616
All Quotes by Miguel de Cervantes
“There's not the least thing can be said or done, but people will talk and find fault.”
“Without a wink of sleep.”
“It is a true saying that a man must eat a peck of salt with his friend before he knows him.”
“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.”
“Fair and softly goes far.”
“No limits but the sky.”
“To give the devil his due.”
“Plain as the nose on a man's face.”
“Let me leap out of the frying-pan into the fire; or, out of God's blessing into the warm sun.”
“You are taking the wrong sow by the ear.”
“Bell, book, and candle.”
“You're leaping over the hedge before you come to the stile.”
“Let the worst come to the worst.”
“You are come off now with a whole skin.”
“Fear is sharp-sighted, and can see things underground, and much more in the skies.”
“That's the nature of women … not to love when we love them, and to love when we love them not.”
“Ill luck, you know, seldom comes alone.”
“Why do you lead me a wild-goose chase?”
“I find my familiarity with thee has bred contempt.”
“The more thou stir it, the worse it will be.”
“Now had Aurora displayed her mantle over the blushing skies, and dark night withdrawn her sable veil.”
“I tell thee, that is Mambrino's helmet.”
“Give me but that, and let the world rub; there I'll stick.”
“Experience, the universal Mother of Sciences.”
“Sing away sorrow, cast away care.”
“Thank you for nothing.”
“After meat comes mustard; or, like money to a starving man at sea, when there are no victuals to be bought with it.”
“Of good natural parts and of a liberal education.”
“Would puzzle a convocation of casuists to resolve their degrees of consanguinity.”
“Let every man mind his own business.”
“Murder will out.”
“Thou art a cat, and a rat, and a coward.”
“Those who'll play with cats must expect to be scratched.”
“Raise a hue and cry.”
“To withdraw is not to run away, and to stay is no wise action when there is more reason to fear than to hope. 'Tis the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not venture all his eggs in one basket. And though I am but a clown, or a bumpkin, as you may say, yet I would have you to know I know what is what, and have always taken care of the main chance...”
“I know what's what, and have always taken care of the main chance.”
“The ease of my burdens, the staff of my life.”
“I am almost frighted out of my seven senses.”
“Within a stone's throw of it.”
“The very remembrance of my former misfortune proves a new one to me.”
“Absence, that common cure of love.”
“From pro's and con's they fell to a warmer way of disputing.”
“Let us make hay while the sun shines.”
“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.”
“A close mouth catches no flies.”
“She may guess what I should perform in the wet, if I do so much in the dry.”
“You are a devil at everything, and there is no kind of thing in the 'versal world but what you can turn your hand to.”
“It will grieve me so to the heart, that I shall cry my eyes out.”
“Thou hast seen nothing yet.”
“My memory is so bad that many times I forget my own name.”
“'Twill grieve me so to the heart that I shall cry my eyes out.”
“Ready to split his sides with laughing.”
“My honor is dearer to me than my life.”
“Delay always breeds danger.”
“Think before thou speakest.”
“I must speak the truth, and nothing but the truth.”
“They must needs go whom the Devil drives.”
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”
“More knave than fool.”
“I can tell where my own shoe pinches me; and you must not think, sir, to catch old birds with chaff.”
“I never saw a more dreadful battle in my born days.”
“Here is the devil-and-all to pay.”
“I begin to smell a rat.”
“I will take my corporal oath on it.”
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
“Let none presume to tell me that the pen is preferable to the sword.”
“It is past all controversy that what costs dearest is, and ought to be, most valued.”
“It is a common proverb, beauteous princess, that diligence is the mother of good fortune.”
“The bow cannot always stand bent, nor can human frailty subsist without some lawful recreation.”
“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.”
“It is not the hand but the understanding of a man that may be said to write.”
“Fear has many eyes and can see things underground.”
“When the head aches, all the members partake of the pains.”
“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.”
“He has done like Orbaneja, the painter of Ubeda, who, being asked what he painted, answered, "As it may hit;" and when he had scrawled out a misshapen cock, was forced to write underneath, in Gothic letters, "This is a cock."”
“There are men that will make you books, and turn them loose into the world, with as much dispatch as they would do a dish of fritters.”
“There is no book so bad," said the bachelor, "but something good may be found in it.”
“Spare your breath to cool your porridge.”
“The best sauce in the world is hunger.”
“Journey over all the universe in a map, without the expense and fatigue of traveling, without suffering the inconveniences of heat, cold, hunger, and thirst.”
“The fair sex.”
“A little in one's own pocket is better than much in another man's purse. 'Tis good to keep a nest egg. Every little makes a mickle.”
“Remember the old saying, "Faint heart ne'er won fair lady."”
“Forewarned forearmed.”
“As well look for a needle in a bottle of hay.”
“There is a remedy for all things but death, which will be sure to lay us out flat some time or other.”
“Are we to mark this day with a white or a black stone?”
“I'll turn over a new leaf.”
“Let every man look before he leaps.”
“Marriage is a noose.”
“There are only two families in the world, the Haves and the Have-Nots.”
“Love and War are the same thing, and stratagems and policy are as allowable in the one as in the other.”
“A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world as a public indecency.”
“There is no love lost, sir.”
“He has an oar in every man's boat, and a finger in every pie.”
“Tell me thy company, and I'll tell thee what thou art.”
“I say patience, and shuffle the cards.”
“The proof of the pudding is the eating.”
“Tomorrow will be a new day.”
“He is as like one, as one egg is like another.”
“You can see farther into a millstone than he.”
“Sancho Panza by name, is my own self, if I was not changed in my cradle.”
“Sit there, clod-pate!" cried he; "for let me sit wherever I will, that will still be the upper end, and the place of worship to thee.”
“Building castles in the air, 36 and making yourself a laughing-stock.”
“It is good to live and learn.”
“Great persons are able to do great kindnesses.”
“Since Don Quixote de la Mancha is a crazy fool and a madman, and since Sancho Panza, his squire, knows it, yet, for all that, serves and follows him, and hangs on these empty promises of his, there can be no doubt that he is more of a madman and a fool than his master.”
“He is as mad as a March hare.”
“I must follow him through thick and thin.”
“There is no love lost between us.”
“In the night all cats are gray.”
“All is not gold that glisters.”
“I can look sharp as well as another, and let me alone to keep the cobwebs out of my eyes.”
“A good name is better than riches.”
“I drink when I have occasion, and sometimes when I have no occasion.”
“An honest man's word is as good as his bond.”
“Heaven's help is better than early rising.”
“I have other fish to fry.”
“There is a time for some things, and a time for all things; a time for great things, and a time for small things.”
“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.”
“But all in good time.”
“Matters will go swimmingly.”
“Many go out for wool, and come home shorn themselves.”
“They had best not stir the rice, though it sticks to the pot.”
“Good wits jump; 45 a word to the wise is enough.”
“You may as well expect pears from an elm.”
“Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world.”
“You cannot eat your cake and have your cake; 48 and store 's no sore.”
“Diligence is the mother of good fortune.”
“What a man has, so much he is sure of.”
“When a man says, "Get out of my house! what would you have with my wife?" there is no answer to be made.”
“The pot calls the kettle black.”
“This peck of troubles.”
“When thou art at Rome, do as they do at Rome.”
“Many count their chickens before they are hatched; and where they expect bacon, meet with broken bones.”
“My thoughts ran a wool-gathering; and I did like the countryman who looked for his ass while he was mounted on his back.”
“Liberty … is one of the most valuable blessings that Heaven has bestowed upon mankind.”
“As they use to say, spick and span new.”
“I think it a very happy accident.”
“I shall be as secret as the grave.”
“Now, blessings light on him that first invented this same sleep! It covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot. It is the current coin that purchases all the pleasures of the world cheap, and the balance that sets the king and the shepherd, the fool and the wise man, even.”
“Rome was not built in a day.”
“The ass will carry his load, but not a double load; ride not a free horse to death.”
“Never look for birds of this year in the nests of the last.”
“An honest man's word is as good as his bond.”
“Good wits jump; a word to the wise is enough.”
“Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness — its opposite — never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes.”
“What a man has, so much he's sure of.”
“The pot calls the kettle black.”
“Mum's the word.”
“I shall be as secret as the grave.”
“The ass will carry his load, but not a double load; ride not a free horse to death.”
“He … got the better of himself, and that's the best kind of victory one can wish for.”
“Every man was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.”
“There is a strange charm in the thoughts of a good legacy, or the hopes of an estate, which wondrously alleviates the sorrow that men would otherwise feel for the death of friends.”
“It takes all sorts (to make a world)”
“For if he like a madman lived,At least he like a wise one died.”
“If a governor comes out of his government rich, they say he has been a thief; and if he comes out poor, that he has been a noodle and a blockhead.”
“I am almost frighted out of my seven senses.”
“Well, now, there's a remedy for everything except death.”
“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?”
“The painter Orbaneja of Ubeda, if he chanced to draw a cock, he wrote under it, "This is a cock," lest the people should take it for a fox.”
“Many count their chickens before they are hatched; and where they expect bacon, meet with broken bones.”
“I find my familiarity with thee has bred contempt.”
“Fortune leaves always some door open to come at a remedy.”
“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.”
“Take care, your worship, those things over there are not giants but windmills.”
“A knight errant who turns mad for a reason deserves neither merit nor thanks. The thing is to do it without cause.”
“In me the need to talk is a primary impulse, and I can't help saying right off what comes to my tongue.”
“I can tell where my own shoe pinches me; and you must not think, sir, to catch old birds with chaff.”
“Let each man say what he chooses; if because of this I am criticized by the ignorant, I shall not be chastised by the learned.”
“"You are a villain and a scoundrel," said Don Quixote, "and you are the one who is vacant and foolish; I have more upstairs than the whore who bore you ever did".”
“My heart is wax molded as she pleases, but enduring as marble to retain.”
“A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.”
“The eyes those silent tongues of love.”
“Tell me thy company, and I'll tell thee what thou art.”
“The knowledge of yourself will preserve you from vanity.”
“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.”
“Good painters imitate nature, bad ones vomit it.”
“As ill-luck would have it.”
“Which I have earned with the sweat of my brows.”
“By a small sample we may judge of the whole piece.”
“A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.”
“The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the son of his own works.”
“Put you in this pickle.”
“He had a face like a benediction.”
“Can we ever have too much of a good thing?”
“The charging of his enemy was but the work of a moment.”
“Those two fatal words, Mine and Thine.”
“The eyes those silent tongues of Love.”