Miguel de Cervantes

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

He who sings frightens away his ills.

There's no taking trout with dry breeches.

He had a face like a blessing.

Experience is the universal mother of sciences.

He preaches well that lives well.

It is one thing to praise discipline, and another to submit to it.

Fear has many eyes and can see things underground.

Pray look better, Sir... those things yonder are no giants, but windmills.

Jests that give pains are no jests.

No padlocks, bolts, or bars can secure a maiden better than her own reserve.

Every man is the son of his own works.

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

Diligence is the mother of good fortune and idleness its opposite never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes.

There is no greater folly in the world than for a man to despair.

Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory.

Liberty, as well as honor, man ought to preserve at the hazard of his life, for without it life is insupportable.

'Tis the only comfort of the miserable to have partners in their woes.

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.

Whoever is ignorant is vulgar.

Time ripens all things; no man is born wise.

When a child, she was pretty, and, as she grew up, became still more and more beautiful, until, at the age of sixteen, she was beauty itself.

The wicked are always ungrateful.

Cunning cheats itself wholly, and other people partially.

That which costs little is less valued.

It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow.

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

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.

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

From reading too much, and sleeping too little, his brain dried up on him and he lost his judgment.

Sing away sorrow cast away care.

Give up the ghost.

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

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

In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.

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

Well theres a remedy for all things but death which will be sure to lay us flat one time or other.

Thou hast seen nothing yet.

Delay always breeds danger; and to protract a great design is often to ruin it.

The phoenix hope, can wing her way through the desert skies, and still defying fortune's spite; revive from ashes and rise.

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

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 proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.

Fair and softly goes far.

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.

Drink moderately, for drunkeness neither keeps a secret, nor observes a promise.

True valor lies between cowardice and rashness.

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

Give the devil his due.

Jealousy sees things always with magnifying glasses which make little things large, of dwarfs giants, of suspicions truths.

One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world will be better for this.

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.

Mere flimflam stories and nothing but shams and lies.

A person dishonored is worst than dead.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Be a terror to the butchers, that they may be fair in their weight; and keep hucksters and fraudulent dealers in awe, for the same reason.

Proverbs are short sentences drawn from long experience.

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

The brave man carves out his fortune and every man is the son of his own works.

The worst reconciliation is better than the best divorce.

Get out of harms way.

The sky's the limit.

By the streets of 'by and by,' one arrives at the house of 'never'.

Let the worst come to the worst.

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

The guts carry the feet not the feet the guts.

The eyes those silent tongues of love.

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

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

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

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

Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes.

Love is invisible and comes and goes where it wants, without anyone asking about it.

No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly.

Valor lies just halfway between rashness and cowardice.

Laziness never arrived at the attainment of a good wish.

The proof is in the pudding.

Truth may be stretched, but cannot be broken, and always gets above falsehood, as does oil above water.

Truth will rise above falsehood as oil above water.

Great persons are able to do great kindnesses.

God bears with the wicked, but not forever.

Delay always heeds danger.

A shy face is better than a forward heart.

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

A little in one's own pocket is better than much in another man's purse.

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

It is the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow and not to venture all his eggs in one basket.

The knowledge of yourself will preserve you from vanity.

The gratification of wealth is not found in mere possession or in lavish expenditure, but in its wise application.

To be prepared is half the victory.

Seek for good, but expect evil.

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

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

God bears with the wicked but not forever.