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Do But Take Care To Express Yourself In A Plain, Easy Manner, In Well-chosen, Significant And Decent Terms, And To Give A Harmonious And Pleasing Turn To Your Periods: Study To Explain Your Thoughts, And Set Them In The Truest Light, Labouring As Much As Possible, Not To Leave Them Dark Nor Intricate, But Clear And Intelligible.

-Miguel De Cervantes

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Do But Take Care

Miguel De Cervantes

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Do But Take Care To Express Yourself In A Plain, Easy Manner, In Well-chosen, Significant And Decent Terms, And To Give A Harmonious And Pleasing Turn To Your Periods: Study To Explain Your Thoughts, And Set Them In The Truest Light, Labouring As Much As Possible, Not To Leave Them Dark Nor Intricate, But Clear And Intelligible.

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More From Miguel De Cervantes

They Must Needs Go Whom The Devil Drives.

Every Production Must Resemble Its Author.

Don't Put Too Fine A Point To Your Wit For Fear It Should Get Blunted.

She Who Desires To See, Desires Also To Be Seen.

Virtue Is The Truest Nobility.

That One Man Scorned And Covered With Scars Still Strove With His Last Ounce Of Courage To Reach The Unreachable Star.

Reading Don Quixote Can Be Compared To An Indefinite Visit From Your Most Impossible Senior Relative, With All His Pranks, Dirty Habits, Unstoppable Reminiscences, And Terrible Cronies. When The Experience Is Over, And The Old Boy Checks Out At Last (on Page 846 - The Prose Wedged Tight, With No Breaks For Dialogue), You Will Shed Tears All Right; Not Tears Of Relief Or Regret But Tears Of Pride. You Made It, Despite All That 'don Quixote' Could Do.

It Is Courage That Vanquishes In War, And Not Good Weapons.

Miracle Me No Miracles.

One Shouldn't Talk Of Halters In The Hanged Man's House.

Here Lies A Gentleman Bold Who Was So Very Brave He Went To Lengths Untold, And On The Brink Of The Grave Death Had On Him No Hold. By The World He Set Small Store-- He Frightened It To The Core-- Yet Somehow, By Fate's Plan, Though He'd Lived A Crazy Man, When He Died He Was Sane Once More.

Other Men's Pains Are Easily Borne.

There Are Men That Will Make You Books, And Turn Them Loose Into The World, With As Much Dispatch As They Would Do A Dish Of Fritters.

A Man Without Honor Is Worse Than Dead.

I Had Rather Munch A Crust Of Brown Bread And An Onion In A Corner, Without Any More Ado Or Ceremony, Than Feed Upon Turkey At Another Man?s Table, Where One Is Fain To Sit Mincing And Chewing His Meat An Hour Together, Drink Little, Be Always Wiping His Fingers And His Chops, And Never Dare To Cough Nor Sneeze, Though He Has Never So Much A Mind To It, Nor Do A Many Things Which A Body May Do Freely By One?s Self.

Make It Thy Business To Know Thyself, Which Is The Most Difficult Lesson In The World

Personal Knowledge

All Persons Are Not Discreet Enough To Know How To Take Things By The Right Handle.

There Were No Embraces, Because Where There Is Great Love There Is Often Little Display Of It.

Her Father Guarded Her, And She Guarded Herself; For There Are No Padlocks, Bolts, Or Bars, That Secure A Maiden Better Than Her Own Reserve.

There Is A Remedy For Everything But Death; Who, In Spite Of Our Teeth, Will Take Us In His Clutches.

Honesty Is The Best Policy, I Will Stick To That. The Good Shall Have My Hand And Heart, But The Bad Neither Foot Nor Fellowship. And In My Mind, The Main Point Of Governing, Is To Make A Good Beginning.

I Do Not Believe That The Good Lord Plays Dice.

They Who Lose Today May Win Tomorrow.

Where There's Music There Can Be No Evil.

A Wise Man Does Not Trust All His Eggs To One Basket.

Let The Worst Come To The Worst.

Sing Away Sorrow, Cast Away Care.

Bien Predica Quien Bien Vive. He Preaches Well Who Lives Well.

Every Dog Has His Day.

God Who Gives The Wound Gives The Salve.

Many Go Out For Wool, And Come Home Shorn Themselves.

Thou Art A Cat, And A Rat, And A Coward.

Heaven's Help Is Better Than Early Rising.

Thou Hast Seen Nothing Yet.

An Honest Man's Word Is As Good As His Bond.

What A Man Has, So Much He Is Sure Of.

In Hell There Is No Retention.

There Is Nothing Costs Less Than Civility.

When The Severity Of The Law Is To Be Softened, Let Pity, Not Bribes, Be The Motive.

If Thou Takest Virtue For The Rule Of Life, And Valuest Thyself Upon Acting In All Things Comfortably Thereto, Thou Wilt Have No Cause To Envy Lords And Princes; For Blood Is Inherited, But Virtue Is Common Property, And May Be Acquired By All; It Has, Moreover, An Intrinsic Worth, Which Blood Has Not.

Well, There's A Remedy For All Things But Death, Which Will Be Sure To Lay Us Flat One Time Or Other.

Every One In His Own House And God In All Of Them.

Let Us Forget And Forgive Injuries.

Forgive And Forget

He That Gives Quickly Gives Twice.

A Silly Remark Can Be Made In Latin As Well As In Spanish.

They Must Take Me For A Fool, Or Even Worse, A Lunatic. And No Wonder ,for I Am So Intensely Conscious Of My Misfortune And My Misery Is So Overwhelming That I Am Powerless To Resist It And Am Being Turned Into Stone, Devoid Of All Knowledge Or Feeling.

Modesty, Tis A Virtue Not Often Found Among Poets, For Almost Every One Of Them Thinks Himself The Greatest In The World.

Troubles Take Wing For The Man Who Can Sing.

A Shy Face Is Better Than A Forward Heart.

Great People Create Great Acts Of Kindness.

There Is Remedy For All Things Except Death - Don Quixote De La Mancha

Every Man Is As God Made Him, Ay, And Often Worse.

Take Away The Motive, And You Take Away The Sin.

Get Out Of Harms Way.

Whom God Loves, His House Is Sweet To Him.

We Ought To Love Our Maker For His Own Sake, Without Either Hope Of Good Or Fear Of Pain.

Liberty, As Well As Honor, Man Ought To Preserve At The Hazard Of His Life, For Without It Life Is Insupportable

Can We Ever Have Too Much Of A Good Thing?

Too Much Of A Good Thing

I Am Almost Frightened Out Of My Seven Senses.

It Is One Thing To Write As Poet And Another To Write As A Historian: The Poet Can Recount Or Sing About Things Not As They Were, But As They Should Have Been, And The Historian Must Write About Them Not As They Should Have Been, But As They Were, Without Adding Or Subtracting Anything From The Truth.

"from What I Have Seen Here," Remarked Sancho, "justice Is So Good A Thing That Even Robbers Find It Necessary."

Sleep Is The Best Cure For Waking Troubles.

Let Me Leap Out Of The Frying-pan Into The Fire; Or, Out Of God's Blessing Into The Warm Sun.

Good Christians Should Never Avenge Injuries.

When The Head Aches, All The Members Partake Of The Pain.

Faint Heart Ne'er Won Fair Lady.

There Is No Book So Bad...that It Does Not Have Something Good In It.

Spanish And English

Sorrow Was Made For Man, Not For Beasts; Yet If Men Encourage Melancholy Too Much, They Become No Better Than Beasts.

Give The Devil His Due.

For Historians Ought To Be Precise, Truthful, And Quite Unprejudiced, And Neither Interest Nor Fear, Hatred Nor Affection, Should Cause Them To Swerve From The Path Of Truth, Whose Mother Is History, The Rival Of Time, The Depository Of Great Actions, The Witness Of What Is Past, The Example And Instruction Of The Present, The Monitor Of The Future.

Digo, Paciencia Y Barajar. What I Say Is, Patience, And Shuffle The Cards.

Now, Blessings Light On Him That First Invented Sleep!Ê It Covers A Man All Over, Thoughts And All, Like A Cloak; It Is Meat For The Hungry, Drink For The Thirsty, Heat For The Cold, And Cold For The Hot.Ê It Is The Current Coin That Purchases All The Pleasures Of The World Cheap, And The Balance That Sets The King And The Shepherd, The Fool And The Wise Man, Even.

One Of The Effects Of Fear Is To Disturb The Senses And Cause Things To Appear Other Than What They Are.

There Are Many Hours And Minutes Between Now And Tomorrowand In Any One Of Them-even In A Minute,the House Falls

Not With Whom You Are Born, But With Whom You Are Bred.

The Eyes Those Silent Tongues Of Love.

All Is Not Gold That Glisters.

Forewarned, Forearmed; To Be Prepared Is Half The Victory.

Pray, Look Better, Sir... Those Things Yonder Are No Giants, But Windmills.

Urgent Necessity Prompts Many To Do Things, At The Very Thoughts Of Which They Perhaps Would Start At Other Times.

There Is No Love Lost Between Us.

With Life Many Things Are Remedied.

He Is Mad Past Recovery, But Yet He Has Lucid Intervals.

The Journey Is Better Than The Inn".

Does The Devil Possess You? You're Leaping Over The Hedge Before You Come At The Stile.

God Bears With The Wicked, But Not Forever.

Make It Thy Business To Know Thyself, Which Is The Most Difficult Lesson In The World. Yet From This Lesson Thou Will Learn To Avoid The Frog's Foolish Ambition Of Swelling To Rival The Bigness Of The Ox.

For If He Like A Madman Lived; At Least He Like A Wise One Died.

The Wounds Received In Battle Bestow Honor, They Do Not Take It Away.

The Little Birds Have God For Their Caterer.

It Will Be Seen In The Frying Of The Eggs.

You Are A Devil At Everything, And There Is No Kind Of Thing In The 'versal World But What You Can Turn Your Hand Into.

Though Gods Attributes Are Equal, Yet His Mercy Is More Attractive And Pleasing In Our Eyes Than His Justice.

"he Preaches Well That Lives Well," Quoth Sancho, "that's All The Divinity I Can Understand."

True Valor Lies In The Middle Between Cowardice And Rashness.

In Order To Attain The Impossible, One Must Attempt The Absurd.

Impossible Things

Truth Indeed Rather Alleviates Than Hurts, And Will Always Bear Up Against Falsehood, As Oil Does Above Water.

The Man Who Fights For His Ideals Is Alive.

Whoever Is Ignorant Is Vulgar.

Good Actions Ennoble Us, And We Are The Sons Of Our Deeds.

A Tooth Is Much More To Be Prized Than A Diamond.

Three Things Too Much, And Three Too Little Are Pernicious To Man; To Speak Much, And Know Little; To Spend Much, And Have Little; To Presume Much, And Be Worth Little.

The Pen Is The Language Of The Soul; As The Concepts That In It Are Generated, Such Will Be Its Writings.

Blessings On Him, Who Invented Sleep.

There Are Two Kinds Of Beauty, One Being Of The Soul And The Other Of The Body, That Of The Soul Is Revealed Through Intelligence, Modesty, Right Conduct, Generosity And Good Breeding, All Of Which Qualities May Exist In An Ugly Man; And When One's Gaze Is Fixed Upon Beauty Of This Sort And Not Upon That Of The Body, Love Is Usually Born Suddenly And Violently.

A Knowledge Of Thyself Will Preserve Thee From Vanity.

When You Are At Rome, Do As You See.

Never Stand Begging For That Which You Have The Power To Earn.

Thou Camest Out Of Thy Mother's Belly Without Government, Thou Hast Liv'd Hitherto Without Government, And Thou Mayst Be Carried To Thy Long Home Without Government, When It Shall Please The Lord. How Many People In This World Live Without Government, Yet Do Well Enough, And Are Well Look'd Upon?

He Who Sings Frightens Away His Ills.

Many Count Their Chickens Before They Are Hatched; And Where They Expect Bacon, Meet With Broken Bones.

Is It Possible Your Pragmatical Worship Should Not Know That The Comparisons Made Between Wit And Wit, Courage And Courage, Beauty And Beauty, Birth And Birth, Are Always Odious And Ill Taken?.

But My Thoughts Ran A Wool-gathering; And I Did Like The Countryman, Who Looked For His Ass While He Was Mounted On His Back.

All I Know Is That So Long I Am Asleep I Am Rid Of All Fears And Hopes And Toils And Glory, And Long Live The Man Who Invented Sleep, The Cloak That Covers All Human Thirst.

Fortune Leaves Always Some Door Open To Come At A Remedy.

Proverbs Are Short Sentences Drawn From Long Experience.

Liberty Is One Of The Most Precious Gifts Which Heaven Has Bestowed On Man; With It We Cannot Compare The Treasures Which The Earth Contains Or The Sea Conceals; For Liberty, As For Honor, We Can And Ought To Risk Our Lives; And, On For The Other Hand, Captivity Is The Greatest Evil That Can Befall Man.

That Which We Are Capable Of Feeling, We Are Capable Of Saying.

There Is No Proverb That Is Not True.

To Be Good To The Vile Is To Throw Water Into The Sea.

Where Envy Reigns Virtue Can't Exist, And Generosity Doesn't Go With Meanness.

There Is A Time For Some Things, And A Time For All Things; A Time For Great Things, And A Time For Small Things.

The Man Who Is Prepared Has His Battle Half Fought.

She Wanted, With Her Fickleness, To Make My Destruction Constant; I Want, By Trying To Destroy Myself, To Satisfy Her Desire.

Delay Always Heeds Danger.

The Pitcher Goes So Often To The Fountain That If Gets Broken.

I Know Well Enough That There Have Been Dogs So Loving That They Have Thrown Themselves Into The Same Grave With The Dead Bodies Of Their Masters.

A Private Sin Is Not So Prejudicial In This World, As A Public Indecency.

I Shall Be As Secret As The Grave.

Don Quixote Followed Nature, And Being Satisfied With His First Sleep, Did Not Solicit More. As For Sancho, He Never Wanted A Second, For The First Lasted Him From Night To Morning, Indicating A Sound Body And A Mind Free From Care; But His Master, Being Unable To Sleep Himself Awakened Him, Saying, "i Am Amazed, Sancho, At The Torpor Of Thy Soul; It Seems As If Thou Wert Made Of Marble Or Brass, Insensible Of Emotion Or Sentiment!

Love And War Are The Same Thing, And Stratagems And Policy Are As Allowable In The One As In The Other.

Fortune May Have Yet A Better Success In Reserve For You And They Who Lose Today May Win Tomorrow.

Comparisons Are Odious.

Laziness Never Arrived At The Attainment Of A Good Wish.

All Of That Is True,’ Responded Don Quixote, ‘but We Cannot All Be Friars, And God Brings His Children To Heaven By Many Paths: Chivalry Is A Religion, And There Are Sainted Knights In Glory.’ Yes,’ Responded Sancho, ‘but I’ve Heard That There Are More Friars In Heaven Than Knights Errant.’ That Is True,’ Responded Don Quixote, ‘because The Number Of Religious Is Greater Than The Number Of Knights.’ There Are Many Who Are Errant,’ Said Sancho. Many,’ Responded Don Quixote, ‘but Few Who Deserve To Be Called Knights.

The Proof Of The Pudding Is The Eating.

Do But Take Care To Express Yourself In A Plain, Easy Manner, In Well-chosen, Significant And Decent Terms, And To Give A Harmonious And Pleasing Turn To Your Periods: Study To Explain Your Thoughts, And Set Them In The Truest Light, Labouring As Much As Possible, Not To Leave Them Dark Nor Intricate, But Clear And Intelligible.

Laws That Only Threaten, And Are Not Kept, Become Like The Log That Was Given To The Frogs To Be Their King, Which They Feared At First, But Soon Scorned And Trampled On.

Everyone Is As God Has Made Him, And Oftentimes A Great Deal Worse.

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.

Under A Bad Cloak There Is Often A Good Drinker

The Beauty Of Some Women Has Days And Seasons, Depending Upon Accidents Which Diminish Or Increase It; Nay, The Very Passions Of The Mind Naturally Improve Or Impair It, And Very Often Utterly Destroy It.

One Who Has Not Only The Four S's, Which Are Required In Every Good Lover, But Even The Whole Alphabet; As For Example... Agreeable, Bountiful, Constant, Dutiful, Easy, Faithful, Gallant, Honorable, Ingenious, Kind, Loyal, Mild, Noble, Officious, Prudent, Quiet, Rich, Secret, True, Valiant, Wise; The X Indeed, Is Too Harsh A Letter To Agree With Him, But He Is Young And Zealous.

He Who Has The Judge For His Father Goes Into Court With An Easy Mind.

Wit And Humor Do Not Reside In Slow Minds.

Love Not What You Are But Only What You May Become.

Nay, What Is Worse, Perhaps Turn Poet, Which, They Say, Is An Infectious And Incurable Distemper.

Jests That Give Pains Are No Jests.

Too Much Sanity May Be Madness!

Those Who'll Play With Cats Must Expect To Be Scratched.

History Is In A Manner A Sacred Thing, So Far As It Contains Truth; For Where Truth Is, The Supreme Father Of It May Also Be Said To Be, At Least, Inasmuch As Concerns Truth.

Mere Flimflam Stories, And Nothing But Shams And Lies.

Every Tooth In A Man's Head Is More Valuable Than A Diamond.

Good Wits Jump; A Word To The Wise Is Enough.

Every Man Was Not Born With A Silver Spoon In His Mouth.

Never Look For Birds Of This Year In The Nests Of The Last.

Fair And Softly Goes Far.

He Preaches Well That Lives Well

How Will He Who Does Not Know How To Govern Himself Know How To Govern Others?

The Stomach Carries The Heart, And Not The Heart The Stomach.

Diligence Is The Mother Of Good Fortune, And Idleness, Its Opposite, Never Brought A Man To The Goal Of Any Of His Best Wishes.

Leap Out Of The Frying Pan Into The Fire.

Man Have To Have Friends Even In Hell.

The Wise Hand Does Not All The Tongue Dictates.

Many Littles Make A Much.

Time Ripens All Things; No Man Is Born Wise.

Necessity Urges Desperate Measures.

Desperate Measures

Tell Me What Company Thou Keepest And I'll Tell Thee What Thou Art.

Happy The Man To Whom Heaven Has Given A Morsel Of Bread Without Laying Him Under The Obligation Of Thanking Any Other For It Than Heaven Itself.

Wit And Humor Belong To Genius Alone.

Make Yourself Honey And The Flies Will Devour You.

The Proof Is In The Pudding.

Treason Pleases, But Not The Traitor.

To Think That The Affairs Of This Life Always Remain In The Same State Is A Vain Presumption; Indeed They All Seem To Be Perpetually Changing And Moving In A Circular Course. Spring Is Followed By Summer, Summer By Autumn, And Autumn By Winter, Which Is Again Followed By Spring, And So Time Continues Its Everlasting Round. But The Life Of Man Is Ever Racing To Its End, Swifter Than Time Itself, Without Hope Of Renewal, Unless In The Next That Is Limitless And Infinite.

Anyone Who Does Not Know How To Make The Most Of His Luck Has No Right To Complain If It Passes By Him.

Truth May Be Stretched, But Cannot Be Broken, And Always Gets Above Falsehood, As Does Oil Above Water.

The Pen Is The Tongue Of The Soul; As Are The Thoughts Engendered There, So Will Be The Things Written.

Cunning Cheats Itself Wholly, And Other People Partially.

Sancho Panza By Name Is My Own Self, If I Was Not Changed In My Cradle.

The Woman Who Is Resolved To Be Respected Can Make Herself Be So Even Amidst An Army Of Soldiers.

Do Not Eat Garlic Or Onions; For Their Smell Will Reveal That You Are A Peasant.

Tis Ill Talking Of Halters In The House Of A Man That Was Hanged.

I Follow A More Easy, And, In My Opinion, A Wiser Course, Namely--to Inveigh Against The Levity Of The Female Sex, Their Fickleness, Their Double-dealing, Their Rotten Promises, Their Broken Faith, And, Finally, Their Want Of Judgment In Bestowing Their Affections.

Roque...lined His Men Up And Had Them Produce All The Clothing, Jewels, Money, And Other Objects That They Had Stolen Since The Last Time They Had Divided The Spoils. Having Made A Hasty Appraisal And Reduced To Terms Of Money Those Items That Could Not Be Divided, He Split The Whole Into Shares With Such Equity And Exactitude That In Not A Single Instance Did He Go Beyond Or Fall Short Of A Strict Distributive Justice. They Were All Well Satisfied With The Payment Received, Indeed They Were Quite Well Pleased; And Roque Then Turned To Don Quixote.

A Father May Have A Child Who Is Ugly And Lacking In All The Graces, And The Love He Feels For Him Puts A Blindfold Over His Eyes So That He Does Not See His Defects But Considers Them Signs Of Charm And Intelligence And Recounts Them To His Friends As If They Were Clever And Witty.

He That Will Not When He May, When He Would, He Should Have Nay.

It Is Not The Responsibility Of Knights Errant To Discover Whether The Afflicted, The Enchained And The Oppressed Whom They Encounter On The Road Are Reduced To These Circumstances And Suffer This Distress For Their Vices, Or For Their Virtues: The Knight's Sole Responsibility Is To Succour Them As People In Need, Having Eyes Only For Their Sufferings, Not For Their Misdeeds.

I'll Turn Over A New Leaf.

A Blot In Thy Escutcheon To All Futurity.

Truly I Was Born To Be An Example Of Misfortune, And A Target At Which The Arrows Of Adversary Are Aimed.

And Thus Being Totally Preoccupied, He Rode So Slowly That The Sun Was Soon Glowing With Such Intense Heat That It Would Have Melted His Brains, If He'd Had Any.

Journey Over All The Universe In A Map, Without The Expense And Fatigue Of Traveling, Without Suffering The Inconveniences Of Heat, Cold, Hunger, And Thirst.

By Such Innovations Are Languages Enriched, When The Words Are Adopted By The Multitude, And Naturalized By Custom.

By The Streets Of 'by And By,' One Arrives At The House Of 'never'.

Procrastination

Now Blessings Light On Him That First Invented This Same Sleep. It Covers A Man All Over, Thoughts And All, Like A Cloak.

Poesy Is A Beauteous Damsel, Chaste, Honourable, Discreet, Witty, Retired, And Who Keeps Herself Within The Limits Of Propriety. She Is A Friend Of Solitude; Fountains Entertain Her, Meadows Console Her, Woods Free Her From Ennui, Flowers Delight Her; In Short, She Gives Pleasure And Instruction To All With Whom She Communicates.

Believe There Are No Limits But The Sky.

The Foolish Sayings Of The Rich Pass For Wise Saws In Society.

One Day, In The San Francisco Walk, He Came Upon Some Badly Painted Figures And Observed That Good Painters Imitate Nature But Bad Ones Vomit It Forth.

Translating From One Language To Another, Unless It Is From Greek And Latin, The Queens Of All Languages, Is Like Looking At Flemish Tapestries From The Wrong Side, For Although The Figures Are Visible, They Are Covered By Threads That Obscure Them, And Cannot Be Seen With The Smoothness And Color Of The Right Side.

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