Cervantes

Don Quixote

Early Modern influential 114 sayings

Sayings by Cervantes

Many go out for wool and come home shorn.

1605 — Don Quixote, Part I, Chapter VII
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

A closed mouth catches no flies.

1615 — Don Quixote, Part II, Chapter XLIII
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Faint heart never won fair lady.

1615 — Don Quixote, Part II, Chapter XXXVIII
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The greatest beauty is that which is natural.

1605 — Don Quixote, Part I, Chapter XXVII
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The pen is the tongue of the mind.

1615 — Don Quixote, Part II, Chapter XVI
Strange & Unusual Confirmed

There's a remedy for all things but death.

1615 — Don Quixote, Part II, Chapter X
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

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

1615 — Don Quixote, Part II, Chapter XLII
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

It is not the part of a good Christian to return evil for evil.

1605 — Don Quixote, Part I, Chapter V
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The pot calls the kettle black.

1615 — Don Quixote, Part II, Chapter LXVII
Strange & Unusual Confirmed

The belly carries the legs, and not the legs the belly.

1615 — Don Quixote, Part II, Chapter XXXIII
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

He who is master of himself, is master of the world.

1605 — Don Quixote, Part I, Chapter VIII
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

There are two roads, Sancho, by which men may come to be rich and lords: one is that of letters, the other that of arms.

1605 — Don Quixote, Part I, Chapter XXXVIII
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The devil is in the details.

1605 — Don Quixote, Part I, Chapter XLVIII
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Where there's a will, there's a way.

1615 — Don Quixote, Part II, Chapter XXXVII
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.

1615 — Don Quixote, Part II, Chapter LXVII
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Every man is the architect of his own fortune.

1605 — Don Quixote, Part I, Chapter XXXV
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The greatest sorcery is to do good, and the greatest madness is to live without it.

1605 — Don Quixote, Part I, Chapter XXIV
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Discretion is the better part of valor.

1605 — Don Quixote, Part I, Chapter XXXI
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The more you stir it, the more it stinks.

1615 — Don Quixote, Part II, Chapter XIII
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Hunger is the best sauce.

1615 — Don Quixote, Part II, Chapter V
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable