Top 500 Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Quotes (2024 Update)
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451. “But what’s that book next to it?” “La Galatea, by Miguel de Cervantes,”24 said the barber. “This Cervantes has been a good friend of mine for many years, and I know that he is better versed in misfortunes than in verses. His book has a certain creativity; it proposes something and concludes nothing. We have to wait for the second part he has promised; perhaps with that addition it will achieve the mercy denied to it now; in the meantime, keep it locked away in your house, my friend.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

452. “What a man has, so much he is sure of.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

453. “This is a natural disposition of women,” said Don Quixote. “They disdain those who love them and love those who disdain them.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

454. “Siempre deja la ventura una puerta abierta en las desdichas, para dar remedio a ellas.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

455. “He then directed one of the ladies to gird on Don Quixote’s sword, which she did with much gravity and composure; for it was all they could do to keep from laughing at every point of the ceremony, but the thought of the knight’s prowess which they had already witnessed was sufficient to restrain their mirth.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

456. “There are two kinds of beauty: one of the soul and the other of the body. That of the soul displays its radiance in intelligence, in chastity, in good conduct, in generosity, and in good breeding, and all these qualities may exist in an ugly man.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

457. “Sobre un buen cimiento se puede levantar un buen edificio, y el mejor cimiento y zanja del mundo es el dinero.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

458. “Every man is the child of his own deeds.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

459. “No se abrazaron unos a otros, porque donde hay mucho amor no suele haber demasiada desenvoltura.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

460. “Quien te cubre, te descubre!”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

461. “I search for life in dread death, in fearful disease for health, in dark prison for liberty, escape in a sealed room, in a traitor, loyalty. But my own fate from whom I ne’er hope for the good has with just heaven ruled: if the impossible I demand, for me the possible is banned.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

462. “Advierte que es desati-, siendo de vidrio el teja-, tomar piedras en las ma- para tirar al veci-.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

463. “The women, unaccustomed to hearing such high-flown rhetoric, did not say a word in response; they only asked if he wanted something to eat. “I would consume any fare,” replied Don Quixote, “because, as I understand it, that would be most beneficial now.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

464. “Happy he, to whom heaven has given a piece of bread for which he is not bound to give thanks to any but heaven itself!”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

465. “Now I forgive you,” said Don Quixote, “and you must pardon the anger I have shown you; for first impulses are not in the hands of men.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

466. “If you take a good woman into your house it will be an easy matter to keep her good, and even to make her still better; but if you take a bad one you will find it hard work to mend her, for it is no very easy matter to pass from one extreme to another.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

467. “Enfrena la lengua, considera y rumia las palabras antes que te salgan de la boca, y advierte que hemos llegado a parte donde, con el favor de Dios y valor de mi brazo, hemos de salir mejorados en tercio y quinto en fama y en hacienda.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

468. “Oh my lady Dulcinea del Toboso, perfection of all beauty, summit and crown of discretion, treasure house of grace, depositary of virtue, and finally, ideal of all that is good, honourable, and delectable in this world! What is thy grace doing now?”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

469. “En fin, bien dicen que es menester mucho tiempo para venir a conocer las personas, y que no hay cosa segura en esta vida.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

470. “Doing good to the lowborn is throwing water into the sea.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

471. “I wanted only to offer it to you plain and bare, unadorned by a prologue or the endless catalogue of sonnets, epigrams and laudatory poems that are usually placed at the beginning of books.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

472. “Better is it for a soldier to die in battle than to save his life by running away. For my part I had rather be again present, were it possible, in that famous battle, than whole and sound without sharing ill the glory of it. The scars which a soldier exhibits in his breast and face are stars to guide others to the haven of honour and the love of just praise.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

473. “A la guerra me lleva mi necesidad; si tuviera dineros, no fuera, en verdad.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

474. “There is not the least thing can be said or done but people will talk and find fault.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

475. “There is no cleft of a rock, no bank of a stream, no shadow of a tree that is not occupied by some shepherd recounting his misfortunes to the wind. Whenever an echo can be heard, it repeats the name of Leandra, the mountains resound with the name of Leandra, the brooks do murmur Leandra, and Leandra holds us all enchanted and perplexed, hoping without hope and fearing without knowledge of what we fear.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

476. “The innkeeper shouted at them to stop because he had already told them he was crazy, and that being crazy he would be absolved even if he killed them all. Don Quixote shouted even louder, calling them perfidious traitors and saying that the lord of the castle was a varlet and a discourteous knight for allowing knights errant to be so badly treated, and that if he had already received the order of chivalry, he would enlighten him as to the full extent of his treachery.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

477. “Another thing to strive for: reading your history should move the melancholy to laughter, increase the joy of the cheerful, not irritate the simple, fill the clever with admiration for its invention, not give the serious reason to scorn it, and allow the prudent to praise it.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

478. “We have not run across anyone,” responded Don Quixote, “but we found a saddle cushion and traveling case not far from here.” “I found them, too,” responded the goatherd, “but I never wanted to pick them up or go near them because I was afraid there’d be trouble and they’d say I stole them; the devil’s sly, and he puts things under our feet that make us stumble and fall, and we don’t know how or why.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

479. “Senor, sorrows were made not for animals but for men; but if men feel them too much, they turn into animals...”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

480. “La libertad no se vende n por todo el oro del mundo.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

481. “You should know, Sancho, that a man is not worth more than any other if he does not do more than any other.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

482. “O thou, whoever thou art, rash knight that comest to lay hands on the armour of the most valorous errant that ever girt on sword, have a care what thou dost; touch it not unless thou wouldst lay down thy life as the penalty of thy rashness.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

483. “Despair not, valiant knight, nor regard as an untoward fate the position in which thou findest thyself; it may be that by these slips thy crooked fortune will make itself straight; for heaven by strange circuitous ways, mysterious and incomprehensible to man, raises up the fallen and makes rich the poor.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

484. “Walk slowly; speak calmly, but not in a way that makes it seem you are listening to yourself, for all affectation is wrong. Eat sparingly at midday and even less for supper, for the health of the entire body is forged in the workshop of the stomach. Be temperate in your drinking, remembering that too much wine cannot keep either a secret or a promise.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

485. “I am Orlando who, Quixote, undone by fair Angelica, saw distant seas, and offered on the altars of Lady Fame the valor that respected oblivion. I cannot be your equal; I am humbled by your prowess, your noble deeds, your fame, for you, like me, have gone and lost your mind. But my equal you will be if you defeat the haughty Moor, the charging beast; today we are called equal in ill-fated love.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

486. “I implore thee to tell me, if it doth not cause thee too much pain, what it is that distresseth thee, and who, what, and how many are the persons on whom I must wreak proper, complete, and entire vengeance.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

487. “En fin, yo quiero saber lo que gano, poco o mucho que sea, que sobre un huevo pone la gallina, y muchos pocos hacen un mucho, y mientras se gana algo no se pierde nada.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

488. “Honour and virtue are ornaments of the soul, and without them the body, even if it is beautiful, shouldn’t seem beautiful.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

489. “Ye love-smitten host, know that to Dulcinea only I am dough and sugar-paste, flint to all others; for her I am honey, for you aloes. For.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

490. “The best sauce in the world is hunger, and as the poor are never without that, they always eat with a relish.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

491. “When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams – this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness – and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

492. “I can say that since I have been a knight-errant I have become valiant, polite, generous, well-bred, magnanimous, courteous, dauntless, gentle, patient, and have learned to bear hardships, imprisonments, and.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

493. “I’m so lucky,” said Sancho, “that when that happens and your grace finds such a sword, it’ll be exactly like the balm and only work for and benefit dubbed knights, while squires can just swallow their sorrows.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

494. “Oh dear!’ exclaimed the niece. ‘I’ll be blowed if my master doesn’t want to be a knight errant again!’ To which Don Quixote replied: ‘A knight errant I shall be until I die;.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

495. “To give expression to humour, and write in a strain of graceful pleasantry, is the gift of great geniuses. The cleverest character in comedy is the clown, for he who would make people take him for a fool, must not be one.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

496. “It is a wise man’s duty to save himself for to-morrow, and not risk everything on one day.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

497. “Canta como una calandria, danza como el pensamiento, baila como una perdida, lee y escribe como un maestro de escuela y cuenta como un avariento.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

498. “The person who possesses wealth is not made happy by having it but by spending it, and not spending it haphazardly but in knowing how to spend it well.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

499. “Julius Caesar, that valiant Roman emperor, was asked what was the best death, and he responded the one that was unexpected, sudden, and unforeseen...”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

500. “And Cide Hamete says even more: he considers that the perpetrators of the hoax were as mad as the victims, and that the Duke and Duchess, going to such lengths to make fun of two fools, were within a hairsbreadth of looking like fools themselves.”

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra