For in works of fiction there should be a mating between the plot and the reader’s intelligence. They should be so written that the impossible is made to appear possible, things hard to believe being smoothed over and the mind held in suspense in such a manner as to create surprise and astonishment while at the same time they divert and entertain so that admiration and pleasure go hand in hand.
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.
Is it possible that in all the time you have traveled with me you have not yet noticed that all things having to do with knights errant appear to be chimerical, foolish, senseless, and turned inside out? And not because they really are, but because hordes of enchanters always walk among us and alter and change everything and turn things into whatever they please, according to whether they wish to favor us or destroy us;.
The great achievement is to lose one’s reason for no reason, and to let my lady know that if I can do this without cause, what should I not do if there were cause?
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.
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.
Too much sanity is madness. The greatest madness of all is to see the world as it is, and not as it should be.
Say it,” Don Quixote said, “and be brief, for no speech is pleasing if it is long.
In death, life I wish to see, in disease, health I seek, in prison, I want liberty, I desire escape from a keep, and, from a traitor, loyalty. But malign Fate does bind, to deny me the good, with Heaven combined, because the impossible I would, the possible will I never find.
Remember, Sancho, if thou make virtue thy aim, and take a pride in doing virtuous actions, thou wilt have no cause to envy those who have princely and lordly ones, for blood is an inheritance, but virtue an acquisition, and virtue has in itself alone a worth that blood does not possess.
Are you so green you don’t know that?’ retorted Sancho Panza. ‘Well, look here, my dear: a knight adventurer, to cut a long story short, is someone who’s being beaten up one moment and being crowned emperor the next. Today he’s the unhappiest creature in the world, and the poorest too, and tomorrow he’ll have two or three kingdoms to hand over to his squire.
His fantasy filled with everything he had read in his books, enchantments as well as combats, battles, challenges, wounds, courtings, loves, torments, and other impossible foolishness, and he became so convinced in his imagination of the truth of all the countless grandiloquent and false inventions he read that for him no history in the world was truer.
Take heart, take heart: despondency in misfortune lessens one’s health and hastens death.
La ventura lascia sempre un uscio aperto al rimedio nelle disgrazie.
This is a natural disposition of women,” said Don Quixote. “They disdain those who love them and love those who disdain them.
When there can and should be a place for impartiality, do not bring the entire rigor of the law to bear on the offender, for the reputation of the harsh judge is not better than that of the compassionate one.
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.
They cannot and should not be called deceptions,” said Don Quixote, “since their purpose was virtuous.
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.
Don Chisciotte e Sancio tornarono alle loro bestie, e alle bestie che erano, e questa fu la fine dell’avventura della barca incantata.