Don Quixote

My most favorite passages in Edith Grossmans translation of Don Quixote:

"But tell me, Senores, i f you have considered it: how many more perish in war than profit from it? No doubt you will respond that there is no comparison, that the number of dead cannot be counted, and those who have been rewarded, and survidved can be counted in three digits and never reach a thousand. All of this is the opposite of what happens to lettered men, for with their fees, not to mention the bribes they receive, they have enough to get by, so that even though the hardship of a solder is greater, his reward is much smaller. But one can respond to this by saying that it is easier to reward two thousand lettered men than thiry thousand soldiers, because the first are rewarded by positions that of necessity must be given to those in their profession, and the latter cannot be rewarded except by the very wealth that belongs to the lord they serve...

"Thanks be to God" said the captive, "for the mercies he has received; in my opinion, there is no joy on earth equal to that of regaining freedom one has lost." p 341

"History is like a sacred thing; it must be truthful, and wherever truth is, there God is; but despite this, there are some who write and toss off books as if they were fritters" - Don Quoxote. p 479

"This accounts for the fact that when we see someone finely dressed and wearing rich clothes and with a train of servants, it seems that some force moves and induces us to respect him, although at that moment our memory recalls the lowliness in which we once saw that person; and that shame, whether of poverty or low birth, is in the past and no longer exists, and what is is only what we see in front of us in the present. And if this man, whose earlier lowliness has been erased by the good fortune that has raised him to prosperity, is well-mannered, generous, and courteous with everyone, and does not compete with those who have been noble asince anceient times, you can be sure, that nobody will remember what he was but will revere him for what he is, unless they are envious and no good fortune is safe from envy. - Sancho Panza p 490

"There is no arguing against written proof, because if you cut the deck you dont deal, and a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. And I say that a womans advice is no jewel, and the man who doesnt take it is a fool", said Sancho.
"And I say that as well", responded Don Quixote. "Continue, Sancho my friend, go on, for today you are speaking pearls".
"The fact is", responded Sancho, "that as your grace knows very well were all subject to death, here today and gone tomorrow and the lamb goes as quickly as the sheep and nobody can promise himself more hours of life in this world than the ones God wants to give him, because death is silent, and when she comes knocking at the door of our life, shes always in a hurry, and nothing will stop her, not prayers or struggles or scepters or miters and thats something that everybody hears, something they tell us from the pulpit".

"And so, O Sancho, our actions must not go beyond the limits placed there by the Christian religion, which we profess. We must slay pride by slaying giants; slay envy with generosity and a good heart; anger with serene bearing and tranquility of spirit; gluttony and sleep by eating little and watching always; lust and lasciviousness by maitaining our fealty toward those whome we have made mistresses of our thoughts; sloth by wandering everywhere in the world." - DQ p. 506

"The conqueror enjoys more fame and glory the greater the distinction of the vanquished"

Don Lorenzo said to DQ "it seems to me that your grace has spent time in school: what sciences have you studied?"
"The science of knight errantry." responded DQ "which as good as poetry, perhaps even a little better".
"I dont know that science" replied Don Lorenzo. "i havent heard of it until now."
"It is a science," replied DQ, "that contains all or most of the sciences in the world, because the man who professes it must be a jurist and know the laws distributive and commutative justice so that he may give to each person what is his and what he ought to have; he must be a theologian so that he may know how to explain the Christian law he professes, clearly and distinctly, no matter where he is asked to do so, he must be a physician, and principally an herbalist, so that he may know, in the midst of wastelands and deserts, the herbs that have the virtue to heal wounds, for the knight errant cannot always go looking for someone to heal him; he must be an astrologer, so that he can tell by the stars how many hours of the night have passed, and in what part and climate of the world he finds himself; he must know mathematics, because at every step he will have need of them; and leaving aside the fact that he must be adorned with all the theological and cardianal virtues, and descending to the small details, i say that he must know how to swim as well as they say the fishman Nicolas could swim; he must know how to shoe a horse and repari a saddle and bridle; and returning to what was said before, he must keep his faith in God and in his lady; he must be chast in his thoughts, honest in his words, liberal in his actions, valiant in his deeds, long-suffering in his afflications, charitable with those in need, and , finally, an upholder of Truth, even if it costs him life to defend it. Of all these great and trival parts a good knight erratnt is compsed, and so your grace may judge, Senor Don Lorenzo if the sience learned by the knight who studies and professes it is a shallow one, and if it can be compared to the noblest that are taught in colleges and schools."
"If this is true", replied Don Lorenzo, "i say that this science surpasses all of them." p 570

"If my was would be an is,
not waiting for a will be,
or if at last the time would come
when later is now and here

At last, since all things pass,
the good that Fortune gave me
passed too, though once o ervflowing
and never to me returned
neither scant nor in abundance.
Not for centureies, O Fortune,
have you seen me at your feet;
make me contented once more;
my great good fortune will be
if my was would be an is.

I wish no joy or glory,
neither honor nor victory,
no other triumph or conquest,
but to return to the joy
thats nothing but grief in memory.
If you can return me there
O Fortune, this fiery torment
will ease; do it now, i pray,
not waiting for a will be.

What i ask is the impossible,
for there is no force on earth
that has the power to turn
back time that has passed us by,
to bring back what once was ours.
Time races, it flies, it charges
past, and will never return,
and only a fool would beg
a halt, or if the time would pass,
or if at last the time would come.

I live a life of perplexity,
torn between hoping and fear:
this is a death in life for me;
much better to end my sorrow
and die the death in life for me;
much better to end my sorrow
and die the death of the tomb.
And though my wish is to end
my life, my reason tells me no,
and hands me back my gloomy life
in terror of that after time
when later is now and here.
p 572


I am a god most powerful
in the air and on the land
and the wide, wind driven sea,
and in the fiery pit
and the fearful hell it contains.
Fears something ive never known;
whatever i wish i can do,
thought it may well be impossible;
in the realm of the possible i rule,
and give and take away at will.
p 587

"You do not understand me Sancho; i mean only that he must have made some agreement with the devil to grant this talent to the monkey so that Master Pedro could earn his living, and when he is rich the devil will take his soul, which is precisely what the universal enemy wishes. And what makes me believe this is seeing that the monkey replies only to past or present things, which is as far as the devils knowledge can go; future things cannot be known except through conjecture, and only occasionally, for knowing all times and moments is reserved to God alone, and for Hi there is no past or future: everything is present. AAnd this being true, as it is, it is clear that this monkey speaks in the style of the devil, and i am amazed that he has not been dencounced to the Holy Office, and examined and forced to tell by whoese power he divines" - DQ p 626

"For time which reveals all things, brings everything into the light of day even if it is hidden in the bowels of the earth." - DQ p 628

"Lean against a sturdy trunk if you want good shade" - Sancho p667

"Youre right" said the dutchess, "because nobody is born knowing and bishops are made from men, not stones". p680

"...and be advised, Sancho, that works of charity performed in a lukewarm and halfhearted way have no merit and are worth nothing" - dutchess p 697

"If you happen to bend the staff of justice, let it be with the weight not of a gift, but of mercy. If you judge the case of one of your enemies, put your injury out of your mind and turn your thoughts to the truth of the question..... if a beautiful woman comes to you to plead for justice, turn your eyes from her tears and your ears from her sobs and consider without haste the substance of what she is asking if you do not want your reason to be drowned in her weeping and your goodness in her sighs. If you must punish a man with deeds, do not abuse him with words, for the pain of punishment is enough for the unfortunate man without the addition of malicious speech. Consider the culprit who falls under your jurisdiction as a fallen man subject to the conditions of our depraved nature and to the extent that you can, without doing injury to the opposing party, show him compassion and clemency, because although all the attributes of God are equal, in our view mercy is more brilliant and splended that justice..........be moderate in your sleeping, for the man who does not get up with the sun does not possess the day; and remember, Sancho, that diligence is the mother of good fortune, and sloth her oppsite, never reached the conclusion demanded by good intentions." - advice from DQ to Sancho before he becomes governor. p 732, 734

"everyones equal when they sleep, the great and the small, the poor and the rich" - Sancho p 737

"When i expected to hear news of your negligence and impertinence, Sancho my friend, i have heard about your intelligence, for which i gave special thanks to heaven, which can raise the poor from the dungheap, and make wise men out of fools. They tell me that you govern as if you were a man, and that you are a man as if you were an animal, so humbly do you behave; and i want you to be aware Sancho, that many times it is proper and necessary because of the authority of ones position, to contravene the humility of ones heart, because the admirable qualities in the person who hold high office ought to conform to the demands of the office, not the measures to which his humble state inclines him..........Write to your lord and lady and show them that you are grateful, for ingratitude is the daughter of pride and one of the greatest sins we know, while the person who is grateful to those who have granted him benefits indicates that he will also be grateful to God who has granted and continues to grant him so many." - letter to Sancho after hearing of his success of governor. p793

"I intend to leave this life of leisure very soon, for i was not born to be idle" - DQ p 794

"To believe that the things of this life will endure forver, unchanged, is to believe the impossible; it seems instead that everything goes around, I mean around in a circle: spring pursues summer, summer pursues estio, estio pursues autumn, autumn pursues winter, and winter pursues spring, and in this way time turns around a continuous wheel; only human life races to its end more quickly than time, with no hope for renewal except in the next life, which has no boundaries that limit it." cervantes narraration. p 804

"May Barabas go with you; you belong to him". ' Altisidora p 830

"Freedom Sancho is one of the most precious gifts heaven gave to men; the treasures under the earth and beneath the sea cannot compare to it; for freedom as well as for honor, one can and should risk ones life, while captivity, on the other hand, is the greatest evil that can befall men. I say this Sancho, because you have clearly seen the luxury and abundance we have enjoyed in this castle that we are leaving, but in the midst of those flavorful banquets and those drinks as cool as snow it seemed as if i were suffering the pangs of hunger because i could not enjoy them with freedom i would have had if they had been mine; the obligations to repay the benefits and kindnesses we ahve received are bonds that hobble a free spirit. Fortunate is the man to whom heaven has given a piece of bread with no obligation to thank anyone but heaven itself!". - DQ p832

Then they removed another cloth and it covered the fall of St. Paul from his horse, with all the details that are usually depicted in images of his conversion. It looked so lifelike that one would say that Christ was speaking and Paul responding. "This" said Don Quixote, "was the greatest enemy of the Church of God our Lord had at the time and the greatest defender it will ever have; a knight errant in life, and a steadfast saint in death, a tireless worker in the vineyard of the Lord, a teacher of peoples whose school was heaven and whose profeessor and master was Jesus Christ himself." p834

"You should know Sancho" said DQ "that love shows no restraint, and does not keep within the bounds of reason as it proceeds, and has the same character as death; it attacks noble palaces of kings as well as the poor huts of shepherds and when it takes full possession of a heart, the first thing it does is to take away fear and shame." p 836

"Althought some may say pride is the greatest sin men commit, I say it is ingratitude, for i am guided by the adage that sells hell is filled with the ungrateful. This sin is one i have attempted to flee, as much as it was posible for me to do so, since i first reached the age of reason; if i cannot repay the good deeds done for me with other deeds, in their place i put the desire i have to perform them, and if that is not enough, i proclaim those good deeds far and wide, because the person who tells about and proclaims the good deeds that ahve been performed on his behalf would also recompense them with other deeds if he could, because most of the time those who receive are subordinate to those who give; therefore God is above us all, because He gives to us all, and the gifts of man cannot be compared to those of God, for they are separated by an infinite distance; this paucity and dearth in a certain sesnse, can be made up for by gratitude. And I, grateful for the kindness shown to me here, and not being able to correspond in kind for i am restrained by the narrow limitations of my means, offer what little i can and able to do" DQ p 839

"These are the kinds of books, although there are a good number of them, which ought to be printed, because there are countless sinners, and infinite illumination is needed for so many who are unenlightnend." - DQ p874

"I only understand that while Im sleeping i have no fear or hope or trouble or glory; blessed be whoever invented sleep, the mantle that covers all human thought, the food that satisfies hunger, the water that quenches thirst, the fire that warms the cold, the cold that cools down ardor, and finally the general coin with which all things are bought, the scale and balance that make the shephard equal to the king, and the simple man equal to the wise." - Sancho p904

"you are right Sancho", said DQ "because this painter is like Orbaneja, a painter in Ubeda who when asked what he was painting would respond Whatever comes out. And if he happened to be painting would a rooster he would write beneath it; this is a rooster so that no one would think it was a fox. And that it seems to me Sancho, is how the painter or writer - for it amounts to the same thing - must be who brought out the history of this new DQ ; he painted or wrote whatever came out". p 923