The Greatest Quotes

I have had the great fortune to have read a number of the greatest works ever recorded, which I devoted myself to, over the course of a number of years. At my leisure, I took the time to sift through the content within each piece, and arrive at what I found to be most entertaining, or noteworthy; and herein I will provide the reader with the fruits of my labour, so to speak. Of course, there is a very good chance I've overlooked key quotes within each work; or perhaps, even, the reader may not find the same value as I had found. Truth be told, however, my only regret is that I didn't start taking notes sooner, as there were a decent number of books that I read prior to compiling this short selection, which I don't have any notes for, whatsoever.

The reader might be hisitant to breeze through these quotes, without having first read the work in its entirety -- but you can always do some research as well, to arrive at a better understanding.

And of course, it goes without saying that I'll continue to add quotes to my repertoire of classic works. But, here below is what I have compiled for the reader, for the time being. My only hope is, indeed, that the reader finds value.

“Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule” Mr. Jaggers. (Great Expectations).

"I knew not how to answer, or how to comfort her. That she had done a grievous thing to taking an impressionable child to mould into a form that her wild resentment, spurned affection, and wounded pride found vengeance in, I knew full well. But that, in shutting out the light of day, she had shut out infinitely more; that, in seclusion, she had secluded herself from a thousand natural and healing influences; that her mind, brooding solitary, had grown diseased, as all minds do and must and will that reverse the appointed order of their Maker, I knew equally well. And could I look upon her without compassion, seeing her punishment in the ruin she was, in her profound unfitness for this earth on which she was placed, in the vanity of sorrow which had become her master mania, like the vanity of penitence, the vanity of remorse, the vanity of unworthiness, and other monstrous vanities that have been curses in this world?" Pip. (Great Expectations).

"We were so robbed by that man who stands there, as all we common dogs are by those superior Beings — taxed by him without mercy, obliged to work for him without pay, obliged to grind our corn at his mill, obliged to feed scores of his tame birds on our wretched crops, and forbidden for our lives to keep a single tame bird of our own, pillaged and plundered to that degree that when we chanced to have a bite of meat, we ate it in fear, with the door barred and the shutters closed, that his people should not see it and take it from us — I say we were so robbed and hunted, and were made so poor, that our father told us it was a dreadful thing to bring a child into the world, and that what we should most pray for, was that are women might be barren and our miserable race die out!” Peasant Boy. (A Tale of Two Cities).

But this was concrete evidence; it was a fragment of the abolished past, like a fossil bone that turns up in the wrong stratum and destroys a geological theory. It was enough to blow the part to atoms, if in some way it could be published to the world and its significance made known. Winston. (1984)

If he were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself and that most of what he has been told about them is lies. The sealed world in which he lives would be broken, and the fear, hatred and self-righteousness on which his morale depends might evaporate. (1984).

She was always grave, and strict. She was so very good herself, I thought, that the badness of other people made her frown all her life. Esther's godmother (Bleak House).

"On the other hand, the Right Honourable William Buffy, M.P.. contends across the table with someone else, that the shipwreck of the country - about which there is no doubt; it is only the manner of it that is in question - is attributed to Cuffy. If you had done with Cuffy what you ought to have done when he first came into Parliament, and had prevented him from going over to Duffy, you would have got him in to alliance with Fluffy, you would have had with you the weight attaching as a smart debater to Guffy, you would have brought to bear up on the elections the wealth of Huffy, you would have got in for three counties Juffy, Kuffy and Luffy; and you would have strengthened your administration by the official knowledge and the business habits of Muffy. All this, instead of being, as you now are, dependent on the mere caprice of Puffy!" (Bleak House).

Mr George, still composedly smoking, replies, “If I had, I shouldn’t trouble them. I have been trouble enough in my belongings in my day. It may be a very good sort of penitence in a vagabond, who has wasted the best time of his life, to go back then to decent people that he never was a credit to, and live upon them; but it’s not my sort. The best kind of amends then, for having gone away, is to keep away, in my opinion.’ (Bleak House).

"It is this, that he cannot have too little to do with people who are too deep for him, and cannot be too careful of interference with matters he does not understand, that the plain rule is, to do nothing in the dark, to be a party to nothing under-handed or mysterious, and never to put his foot where he cannot see the ground. This, in effect, is Mr Bagnet’s opinion as delivered through the old girl: and it so relieves Mr George’s mind, by confirming his own opinion and banishing his doubts, that he composes himself to smoke another pipe on that exceptional occasion, and to have a talk over old times with the whole Bagnet family, according to their various ranges of experience." (Bleak House).

"‘For I am constantly being taken in these nets,’ said Mr Skimpole, looking beamingly at us over a glass of wine-and-water, ‘and am constantly being bailed out - like a boat. Or paid off — like a ship’s company. Somebody always does it for me. ‘I’ can’t do it, you know, for I never have any money. But somebody does it. I get out by Somebody’s means; I am not like the starling; I get out. If you were to ask me who Somebody is, upon my word, I couldn’t tell you. Let us drink to Somebody. God bless him!’" (Bleak House).

"I am quite sure, if you will let me say so, that the object of your choice would greatly prefer you to follow your fortunes far and wide, however moderate or poor, and see you happy, doing your duty and pursuing your chosen way; than to have the hope of being, or even to be, very rich with you (if such a thing were possible), at the cost of dragging years of procrastination and anxiety, and of your indifference to other aims. You may wonder at my saying this so confidently with so little knowledge or experience, but I know it for a certainty from my own heart." (Bleak House).

Time is no object here. We never know what o’clock it is, and we never care. Not the way to get on in life, you’ll tell me? Certainly. But we don’t get on in life. We don’t pretend to do it. (Bleak House).

It is very queer that the unhappiness of the world is often brought on by small men. They are so much more energetic and uncompromising than the big fellows. I have always taken good care to keep out of sections with small company commanders. They are mostly confounded little martinets. (All Quiet on the Western Front).

"The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and more humane wisdom. But the first death we saw shattered this belief. We had to recognize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs. They surpassed us only in phrases and cleverness. The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces." (All Quiet on the Western Front).

"As sure as they get a strip or star they become different men, just as though they’d swallowed concrete." (All Quiet on the Western Front).

I soon found out this much: -- terror can be endured so much as man ducks; but it kills if man thinks about it. (All Quiet on the Western Front).

But we do not forget. It’s all rot what they put in the war-news about the good humour of the troops, how they are arranging dances almost before they are out of the front line. We don’t act like that because we are in a good humour: we are in a good humour because otherwise we should go to pieces. (All Quiet on the Western Front).

"I see how people are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another. I see that the keenest brains in the world invent weapons and words to make it yet more refined and enduring. And all men of my age [~20], here and over there, throughout the whole world, see these things; all my generation is experiencing these things with me." (All Quiet on the Western Front).

"Every time they do something pretty, even if they’re not much to look at, or even if they’re sort of stupid, you fall in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can." (The Catcher in the Rye).

"The whole thing was sort of funny, in a way, if you thought about it, and all of a sudden I did something that I shouldn’t have. I laughed. And I have one of these very loud, stupid laughs. I mean if I ever sat behind myself in a movie or something, I’d probably lean over and tell myself to please shut up. It made old Sally madder than ever." (The Catcher in the Rye).

"He’s really a Duke, but doesn’t know it. Then, he meets this nice, homey, sincere girl getting on a bus. Her goddam hat blows off and he catches it, and then they go upstairs and sit down and start talking about Charles Dickens. He’s both their favourite author and all. He’s carrying this copy of Oliver Twist, and so’s she. I could’ve puked." (The Catcher in the Rye).

"The part that got me was, there was a lady sitting next to me that cried all through the goddam picture. The phonier it got, the more she cried. You’d have thought she did it because she was kindhearted as hell, but I was sitting right next to her and she wasn’t. She had this little kid with her that was bored as hell and had to go to the bathroom, but she wouldn’t take him. She kept telling him to sit still and behave himself. She was about as kindhearted as a goddam wolf. You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out over phony stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they’re mean bastards at heart. I’m not kidding." (The Catcher in the Rye).

All he had to do was drive some cowboy general around all day in a command car. He once told Allie and I that if he had to shoot anybody, he wouldn’t’ve known which direction to shoot in. He said the army was practically as full of bastards as the Nazis were. (The Catcher in the Rye).

If you sat there long enough and heard all the phonies applauding and all, you got to hate everybody in the world, I swear you did. The bartender was a louse, too. He was a big snob. He didn’t talk to you at all hardly unless you were a big shot or a celebrity or something. If you were a big shot or a celebrity or something, then he was even more nauseating. He’d go up to you and say, with this big charming smile, like he was a helluva swell guy if you knew him, “Well! How’s Connecticut?” or “How’s Florida?” (The Catcher in the Rye).

I have understood that it was, to the last, her proudest boast, that she never had been on the water in her life, except upon a bridge; and that over her tea (to which she was extremely partial) she, to the last, expressed her indignation at the impiety of mariners and others, who had the presumption to go ‘meandering’ about the world. (David Copperfield).

‘If you think, Steerforth,’ said Mr Mell, ‘that I am not acquainted with the power you can establish over any mind here’ — he laid his hand, without considering what he did (as I supposed), upon my head — ‘or that I have not observed you, within a few minutes, urging your juniors on to every sort of outrage against me, you are mistaken.’

‘I don’t give myself the trouble of thinking at all about you,’ said Steerforth coolly; ‘so I’m not mistaken, as it happens.’

‘And when you make use of your position of favouritism here, sir, pursued Mr Mell, with his lip trembling very much, ‘to insult a gentlemen —‘

‘A what? — where is he?’ said Steerforth. (David Copperfield).

“I felt that I made them as uncomfortable as they made me. If I came into the room where they were, and they were talking together and my mother seemed cheerful, an anxious cloud would steal over her face from the moment of my entrance. If Mr Murdstone were in his best humour, I checked him. If Miss Murdstone were in her worst, I intensified it. I had perception enough to know that my mother was the victim always; that she was afraid to speak to me, or be kind to me, lest she should give them some offence by her manner of doing so, and receive a lecture afterwards; that she was not only ceaselessly afraid of her own offending, but of my offending, and uneasily watched their looks if I only moved. Therefore, I resolved to keep myself as much out of their way as I could; and many a wintery hour did I hear the church clock strike, when I was sitting in my cheerless bedroom, wrapped in my little great-coat, poring over a book. (David Copperfield).

‘Never,’ said my aunt, ‘be mean in anything; never be false; never be cruel. Avoid those three vices, Trot, and I can always be hopeful of you.’ (David Copperfield).

Therefore, I thought I’d come back and say, that the sooner I am off the better. When a plunge is to be made into the water, it’s of no use lingering on the bank. (David Copperfield).

A prosperous voyage out, a thriving career abroad, and a happy return home. (David Copperfield).

My aunt and I had held many grave deliberations on the calling to which I should be devoted. For a year or more I had endeavoured to find a satisfactory answer to her often-repeated question, 'What I would like to be?' But I had no particular liking, that I could discover, for anything. If I could have been inspired with a knowledge of the science of navigation, taken the command of a fast-sailing expedition, and gone round the world on a triumphant voyage of discovery, I think I might have considered myself completely suited. But, in the absence of any such miraculous provision, my desire was to apply myself to some pursuit that would not lie too heavily upon her purse; and to do my duty in it, whatever it might be. (David Copperfield).

You have expended a great deal on my education, and have always been liberal to me in all things as it was possible to be. You have been the soul of generosity. Surely there are some ways in which I might begin life with hardly any outlay, and yet begin with a good hope of getting on by resolution and exertion. Are you sure that it would not be better to try that course? (David Copperfield).

His old simple character and good temper, and something of his old unlucky fortune also, I thought, smiled at me in the smile with which he made this explanation. (David Copperfield).

I told you she took everything, herself included, to a grindstone, and sharpened it. She is an edge-tool, and requires great care in dealing with. She is always dangerous. Good night! (David Copperfield).

That perhaps it was a little unjust that all the great offices in this great office should be magnificent sinecures, while the unfortunate working-clerks in cold dark rooms upstairs were the worst rewarded, and the least considered men, doing important services, in London. (David Copperfield).

We must meet reverses boldly, and not suffer them to frighten us, my dear. We must learn to act the play out. We must live misfortune down, Trot. (David Copperfield).

Your mistake in life is, that you do not look forward far enough. You are bound in justice to your family, if not to yourself, to take in a comprehensive glance the extremest point in the horizon to which your abilities may lead you. (David Copperfield).

Then I told her, with my arms clasped round her, how I loved her, so dearly, and so dearly; how I felt it right to offer to release her from her engagement, because I was poor; how I never could bear it, or recover it, if I lost her; how I had no fears of poverty, if she had none, my arm being nerved and my heart inspired by her; how I was already working with a courage such as none but lovers knew; how I had begun to be practical, and to look into the future; how a crust well earned was sweeter far than a feast inherited; and much more to the same purpose, which I delivered in a burst of passionate eloquence quite surprising to myself, though I had been thinking about it, day and night, ever since my aunt had astonished me. (David Copperfield).

‘For our path in life, my Dora,’ said I, warming on the subject, ‘is stony and rugged now, and it rests with us to smooth it. We must fight our way onward. We must be brave. There are obstacles to be met, and we must meet, and crush them!’ (David Copperfield).

The Cottage of content was better than the Palace of cold splendour, and that where love was, all was. (David Copperfield).

Whenever I have not had you, Agnes, to advise and approve in the beginning, I have seemed to go wild, and to get into all sorts of difficulty. When I have come to you, at last (as I have always done), I have come to peace and happiness. I come home now, like a tired traveller, and find such a blessed sense of rest! (David Copperfield).

I have been very fortunate in worldly matters: many men have worked much harder, and not succeeded half so well; but I never could have done what I have done, without the habits of punctuality, order and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one object at a time, no matter how quickly its successor should come upon its heels, which I then formed. Heaven knows I write this in no spirit of self-laudation. The man who reviews his own life I as I do mine, in going on here, from page to page, had need to have been a good man, indeed, if he would be spared the sharp consciousness of many talents neglected, many opportunities wasted, many erratic and perverted feelings constantly at war within his breast, and defeating him. (David Copperfield).

‘You villain,’ said I, ‘what do you mean by entrapping me into your schemes? how dare you appeal to me just now, you false rascal, as if we had been in discussion together?’ (David Copperfield).

She was so pathetic in her sobbing and bewailing, that I felt as if I had said I don’t know what to hurt her. I was obliged to hurry away; I was kept out late; and I felt all night such pangs of remorse as made me miserable. I had the conscience of an assassin, and was haunted by a vague sense of enormous wickedness. (David Copperfield).

Thank you, sir. But you’ll excuse me if I say, sir, that there are neither slaves nor slave-drivers in this country, and that people are not allowed to take the law into their own hands. If they do, it is more to their own peril, I believe, than to other people’s. Consequently speaking. I am not all afraid of going wherever I wish, sir. (David Copperfield).

Of the river — “I know it’s like me! she exclaimed. “I know that I belong to it. I know that it’s the natural company of such as I am! It comes from country places, where there was once no harm in it — and it creeps through the dismal streets, defiled and miserable — and it goes away, like my life, to a great sea, that is always troubled — and I feel that I must go with it!” I have never known what despair was, except in the tone of those words. (David Copperfield).

It has been put into your hearts, perhaps, to save a wretched creature for repentance. I am afraid to think so; it seems too bold. If any good should come of me, I might begin to hope; for nothing but harm has come of my deeds yet. I am to be trusted, for the first time in a long while, with my miserable life, on account of what you have given me to try for. I know no more, and I can say no more. (David Copperfield).

‘Madam,’ returned Mr Micawber, ‘I wish I had had the honour of knowing you at an earlier period. I was not always the wreck you at present behold.’ (David Copperfield).

His was not a lazy trustfulness that hoped, and did no more. He had been a man of sturdy action all his life, and he knew that in all things wherein he wanted to help he must do his own part faithfully, and help himself. I have known him set out in the night, on a misgiving that the light might not be, by some accident, in the window of the old boat, and walk to Yarmouth. I have known him, on reading something in the newspaper, that might apply to her, take up his stick, and go forth on a journey of three or four score miles. He made his way by sea to Naples, and back, after hearing the narrative to which Miss Dartle had assisted me. All his journeys were ruggedly performed; for he was always steadfast in a purpose of saving money for Emily’s sake, when she should be found. In all this long pursuit, I never heard him repine; I never heard him say he was fatigued, or out of heart. (David Copperfield).

He forgot nobody. He thought of everybody’s claims and strivings, but his own — Mr. Peggotty. (David Copperfield).

I never saw such a good old fellow to make the best of a thing, and find out the enjoyment of it, as Mr. Omer. He was as radiant, as if his chair, his asthma, and the failure of his limbs, were the various branches of a great invention for enhancing the luxury of a pipe. (David Copperfield).

'I see more of the world, I can assure you,' said Mr. Omer, 'in this chair, than ever I see out of it. You'd be surprised at the number of people that looks in of a day to have a chat. You really would! There's twice as much in the newspaper, since I've taken to this chair, as there used to be. As to general reading, dear me, what a lot of it I do get through! That's what I feel so strong, you know! If it had been my eyes, what should I have done? If it had been my ears, what should I have done? Being my limbs, what does it signify? Why, my limbs only made my breath shorter when I used 'em. And now, if I want to go out into the street or down to the sands, I've only got to call Dick, Joram's youngest 'prentice, and away I go in my own carriage, like the Lord Mayor of London.' (David Copperfield).

Dear me!' said Mr. Omer, 'when a man is drawing on to a time of life, where the two ends of life meet; when he finds himself, however hearty he is, being wheeled about for the second time, in a speeches of go-cart; he should be over-rejoiced to do a kindness if he can. He wants plenty. And I don't speak of myself, particular,' said Mr. Omer, 'because, sir, the way I look at it is, that we are all drawing on to the bottom of the hill, whatever age we are, on account of time never standing still for a single moment. So let us always do a kindness, and be over-rejoiced. To be sure!' (David Copperfield).

'Perhaps, under such circumstances, madam and gentlemen,' said Mr. Micawber, 'you will do me the favour to submit yourselves, for the moment, to the direction of one who, however unworthy to be regarded in any other light but as a Waif and Stray upon the shore of human nature, is still your fellow-man, though crushed out of his original form by individual errors, and the accumulative force of a combination of circumstances?' (David Copperfield).

‘They have never understood you, Micawber,’ said his wife. ‘They may be incapable of it. If so, that is their misfortune. I can pity their misfortune.’ (David Copperfield).

I wish Mr. Micawber to take his stand upon that vessel's prow, and firmly say, "This country I am come to conquer! Have you honours? Have you riches? Have you posts of profitable pecuniary emolument? Let them be brought forward. They are mine!"' (David Copperfield).

I went away from England; not knowing, even then, how great the shock was, that I had to bear. I left all who were dear to me, and went away; and believed that I had borne it, and it was past. As a man upon a field of battle will receive a mortal hurt, and scarcely know that he is struck, so I, when I was left alone with my undisciplined heart, had no conception of the wound with which it had to strive. (David Copperfield).

For many months I travelled with this ever-darkening cloud upon my mind. Some blind reasons that I had for not returning home - reasons then struggling within me, vainly, for more distinct expression - kept me on my pilgrimage. Sometimes, I had proceeded restlessly from place to place, stopping nowhere; sometimes, I had lingered long in one spot. I had had no purpose, no sustaining soul within me, anywhere. (David Copperfield).

I was in Switzerland. I had come out of Italy, over one of the great passes of the Alps, and had since wandered with a guide among the by-ways of the mountains. If those awful solitudes had spoken to my heart, I did not know it. I had found sublimity and wonder in the dread heights and precipices, in the roaring torrents, and the wastes of ice and snow; but as yet, they had taught me nothing else. (David Copperfield).

I had seen much. I had been in many countries, and I hope I had improved my store of knowledge. (David Copperfield).

I could think of the past now, gravely, but not bitterly; and could contemplate the future in a brave spirit. Home, in its best sense, was for me no more. She in whom I might have inspired a dearer love, I had taught to be my sister. She would marry, and would have new claimants on her tenderness; and in doing it, would never know the love for her that had grown up in my heart. It was right that I should pay the forfeit of my headlong passion. What I reaped, I had sown. (David Copperfield).

“On the appointed day - I think it was the next day, but no matter - Traddles and I repaired to the prison where Mr. Creakle was powerful. It was an immense and solid building, erected at a vast expense. I could not help thinking, as we approached the gate, what an uproar would have been made in the country, if any deluded man had proposed to spend one half the money it had cost, on the erection of an industrial school for the young, or a house of refuge for the deserving old” (David Copperfield).

For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible. (Alice in Wonderland).

'If everybody minded their own business,' the Duchess said in a hoarse growl, 'the world would go round a deal faster than it does.' (Alice in Wonderland).

It wasn’t very civil of you to sit down without being invited, said the March Hare. (Alice in Wonderland).

'That's the reason they're called lessons,' the Gryphon remarked: 'because they lessen from day to day.' (Alice in Wonderland).

“and I have to tell you that the boon I have asked and your liberality has granted is that you shall dub me knight to-morrow morning, and that to-night I shall watch my arms up in the chapel of your castle; thus to-morrow, as I have said, will be accomplished what I so much desire, enabling me lawfully to roam through all four quarters of the world, seeking adventures on behalf of those in distress as is the duty of chivalry and knight-errant like myself, whose ambition is directed to such deeds.” (Don Quixote).

“O rash knight, whomsoever you may be, coming to lay hands on the armour of the most valiant knight errant who ever girded sword! Take care what you do, and touch it not, unless you wish to pay with your life for your temerity.” (Don Quixote).

Discourteous knight: it ill becomes you to assault one who cannot defend himself; mount your steed and take up your lance, and I shall force you to recognize that your actions ore those of a coward. (Don Quixote).

“If I were to let you see her,” retorted Don Quixote, “what merit would there be in confessing so manifest a truth? The whole point is that, without seeing her, you must believe, confess, affirm, swear and uphold it: if not, monstrous and arrogant wretches, you shall face me in battle forthwith. For whether you present yourselves one by one, as the order of chivalry requires or all together, as is the custom and wicked practice of those of your ilk, here I stand and wait for you, confident in the justice of my cause.” (Don Quixote).

“And so I roam these lonely and deserted places in search of adventures, with the firm intention to employ my arm and indeed my whole person in the most perilous adventures that fortune sends my way, in aid of the weak and needy.” (Don Quixote).

“Let me tell you, friend Sancho,” replied Don Quixote, “that the life of a knight errant is subject to a thousand dangers and misfortunes, and it is equally true that knights errant are potential emperors and kings, as is shown by the experience of many different knights, about whose histories I am fully informed.” (Don Quixote).

“…that they did not pay for their lodging or anything else at any inn where they stayed, because whatever hospitality they might receive is due to them as a right and a privilege, in recompense for the insufferable travails they undergo searching for adventures by night and by day, in winter and in summer, on foot and on horseback, thirsty and hungry, in the heat and in the cold, subject to all the inclemencies of the heavens and all the discomforts of the earth.” (Don Quixote).

“Thou speakest aright: I am that merry wanderer of the night.” (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

“Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do” (A Midsummer Night's Dream).

“O, that a lady of one man refused

Should of another therefore be abused!” ( A Midsummer Night's Dream).

The Knight of the Sorry Face was left with a great desire to know who was the owner of the travelling bag, and he conjectured from the sonnet and the letter, from the gold coins and the fine shirts, that they must belong to some lover of high rank, reduced to a desperate decision by his lady’s disdain and ill treatment of him. (Don Quixote).

And if your misfortune were of the sort that keeps the doors tight shut to all lamentations, for it is always a consolation in disaster to find someone who is sympathetic. And if my good intentions deserve to be acknowledged with any kind of courtesy, I beg you, sir, in the name of the abundance of that quality that I can see you possess, and I entreat you in the name of whomsoever in this life you love or have loved the best, to tell me who you are and what has brought you to live and die in this wilderness like a brute animal, because your dress and person show how alien to you is this present life of yours. (Don Quixote).

“.. because it is thanks to his honourable determination to revive and restore to the world the lost and indeed almost defunct order of knight-errantry that we can now enjoy, in this age of ours, so much in need of amusing entertainments, not only the delights of his true history but also the stories and episodes inserted into it, for in some ways they are no less agreeable or imaginative or true than the history itself; which, resuming its thread (duly dressed, spun and wounded), relates that as the priest was preparing himself to comfort Cardenio, he was checked by a voice that said in mournful tones:” (Don Quixote).

“Difficult tasks are attempted for God’s sake, or for the world’s sake, or for both at the same time: those that are attempted for God’s sake are the actions of saints, who try to live lives of angels in human bodies; those that are attempted for the world’s sake are the actions of men who pass across great expanses of water, through vast varieties of climates and among a bewildering diversity of peoples in order, as it is said, to make their fortunes; and the tasks that are attempted for the sake of both God and the world are the actions of brave soldiers, who no sooner see in the enemy’s ramparts the small break that a single cannon-ball can make than, casting all fear aside, without thinking, or paying any heed to the evident perils threatening them, carried forward on the wings of their desire to fight for their faith, their country and their king, they hurl themselves fearlessly into the midst of a thousand different deaths awaiting them.” (Don Quixote).

“It is no longer possible to doubt that this profession of mine surpasses all those ever invented by mankind, and that it should be held in even higher esteem for being exposed to more dangers. Away with anyone who gives letters the preference over arms, for I say to him, whoever he may be, that he does not know what he is talking about.” (Don Quixote).

‘You are a villainous wretch,’ Don Quixote burst out, ‘and you are the one who is empty and a fool, and I am fuller than the whore of a bitch who bore you ever was.’ (Don Quixote).

“Men renowned for their genius — great poets, illustrious historians — are usually envied by those whose pleasure and pastime is to pass judgement on what others have written, without ever having published anything themselves.” (Don Quixote).

“.. so you see anyone publishing a book exposes himself to enormous risk, because it’s absolutely impossible to write one in such a way that it satisfies and pleases all who read it.” (Don Quixote).

“Look what airs the slut’s giving herself now! Only yesterday she was busy spinning her tow from morning to night and she had to pull her skirt over her head when she went to mass for want of a veil, and there she goes today in her farthingale and her brooches and her fine airs as if we didn’t know who she is.” (Don Quixote).

“You put that idea right out of your head,” Sancho retorted, “and take my advice, which is never to fight play-actors, they’re a protected species. I’ve known of actors arrested for a couple of murders and let off without even paying costs. They’re a cheerful crowd and they amuse people, you see, so everybody looks after them, even more so if they belong to one of the official companies — from the way most dress and behave anyone would think they were all princes.” (Don Quixote).

Or else tell me this: have you never seen a play that includes kings, emperors and popes, gentlemen, ladies and other different characters? One actor plays the pimp, another plays the liar, this one the merchant, that one the solider, another the fool who is wise, another the lover who is a fool; but once the play is over and they remove their costumes, all the players are equals. (Don Quixote).

Who goes there? Who is it? Are you perchance numbered among the happy, or among the afflicted? (Don Quixote).

Sit here, sir knight; for to know that you are a knight, and one of those who profess the order of knight-errantry, it is sufficient to have found you in this place, accompanied by solitude and by the damp night air, the natural bed and appropriate abode for a knight errant. (Don Quixote).

‘A knight I am, and of the order which you have mentioned, and although my soul is the seat of sorrow, misfortune and disaster, this has not banished from it the compassion which I feel for the misadventure of others. From what you stated a little earlier I gather that your misadventures are amorous ones: that is to say that they concern your love for the beautiful ingrate whom you named in your lament.’ (Don Quixote).

The appearance that I present to you is so strange and out of the ordinary that it would not surprise me to learn that it has filled you with wonder; but your wonder will cease when I tell you, as I am indeed telling you now, that I am one of those knights

Who go, as people say,

Adventuring their way.

I left my village, I pledged my estate, I abandoned my domestic comforts and delivered myself into the arms of fortune, to be borne by her wherever she pleased to take me. I decided to revive the extinct order of knight-errantry, and for some time now, stumbling here, falling there, crashing headlong in one place, climbing back on to my feet in another, I have in large measure been fulfilling my desires, succouring widows, rescuing maidens, protecting wives, orphans and wards, the proper and natural occupation of knights errant; and thus, because of my many brave and Christian deeds, I have been deemed worthy to appear in print in most of the nations of the world…… (Don Quixote).

Did I not tell you Sancho, that we had come to where I shall show how far the valour of my arm extends? Look how many knaves and blackguards are sallying forth to do battle with me; look at all the monsters raged against me; look at all the ugly faces grimacing at us — well now you shall see, you villains! (Don Quixote).

“Ever since I came down from the heavens and ever since I looked down from the top of them at the earth and saw it was so small, that great urge I had to be a governor has been calling off a bit — what’s so marvellous about ruling over a mustard seed, and what’s so lordly or important about governing half a dozen men the size of hazelnuts? Because it seemed to me there weren’t any more than that on the whole earth. If Your Lordship could see your way to giving me a little bit of heaven, even if only a couple of miles or so of it, I’d be happier with that than with the biggest island in the world.” (Don Quixote).

Sancho, if you make virtue your method, and you take pride in doing virtuous deeds, you will not have to envy those descended from lords and noblemen; because blood is inherited, and virtue is acquired, and virtue has in itself a value that blood lacks. (Don Quixote).