Everyone is as God has made him, and oftentimes a great deal worse.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, 11.5
Quotations by:
Cervantes, Miguel de
The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the son of his own works.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 1, Book 1, ch. 4 (1605)
Those two fatal words, Mine and Thine.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 1, Book 2, ch. 11 (1605) [tr. Motteux & Ozell (1743)]
(Source)
Alt trans.:
- "Oh happy age, which our first parents called the age of gold! not because gold, so much adored in this iron-age, was then easily purchased, but because those two fatal words, mine and thine, were distinctions unknown to the people of those fortunate times." [Full version of the above]
- "Happy the age, happy the time, to which the ancients gave the name of golden, not because in that fortunate age the gold so coveted in this our iron one was gained without toil, but because they that lived in it knew not the two words 'mine' and 'thine'!" [tr. Ormsby (1885)]
- "Happy age, and happy days were those, to which the ancients gave the name of golden; not, that gold, which in these our iron-times, is so much esteemed, was to be acquired without trouble, in that fortunate period; but, because people then, were ignorant of those two words MINE and THINE." [tr. Smollett (1976), as Part 1, Book 1, ch. 3]
There’s not the least thing can be said or done, but people will talk and find fault.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 1, Book 2, ch. 4 (1605)
Absence, that common cure of love.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 1, Book 3, ch. 10 (1605) [tr. Motteux (1701)]
(Source)
I never thrust my nose into another man’s porridge.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 1, Book 3, ch. 11 (1605) [tr. Motteaux and Ozell (1743)]
Be brief, for no discourse can please when too long.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 1, Book 3, ch. 7 (1605)
Delay always breeds danger; to protract a great design is often to ruin it.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 1, Book 4, ch. 2 (1605) [tr. Motteux and Ozell (1743)]
Think before thou speakest.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 1, Book 4, ch. 3 (1605) [tr. Motteux and Ozell (1743)]
The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 1, Book 4, ch. 10 (1605) [tr. Motteau and Ozell (1743)]
A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 2 (1615)
There are but two families in the world, Have-much and Have-little.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 2, Book 3, ch. 20 (1615) [tr. Motteux and Ozell (1743)]
More popularly given as "The Haves and the Have-Nots."
Tell me what company thou keepst, and I’ll tell thee what thou art.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 2, Book 3, ch. 23 (1615)
He preaches well that lives well, quoth Sancho; that’s all the Divinity I understand.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 2, Book 3, ch. 29 (1615) [tr. Motteux & Ozell (1743)]
Death and sleep make us all alike, rich and poor, high and low.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist
Don Quixote, Part 2, Book 4, ch. 43 (1615) [tr. Motteux and Ozell (1743)]