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

-Miguel De Cervantes

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Make It Thy Business

Miguel De Cervantes

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

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Personal Knowledge

More From Miguel De Cervantes

'tis The Maddest Trick A Man Can Ever Play In His Whole Life, To Let His Breath Sneak Out Of His Body Without Any More Ado, And Without So Much As A Rap O'er The Pate, Or A Kick Of The Guts; To Go Out Like The Snuff Of A Farthing Candle, And Die Merely Of The Mulligrubs, Or The Sullens.

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

The Eyes Those Silent Tongues Of Love.

A Man Without Honor Is Worse Than Dead.

Make Yourself Honey And The Flies Will Devour You.

Other Men's Pains Are Easily Borne.

Facts Are The Enemy Of Truth.

The Poet May Say Or Sing, Not As Things Were, But As They Ought To Have Been; But The Historian Must Pen Them, Not As They Ought To Have Been, But As They Really Were.

Honesty's The Best Policy.

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.

A Stout Heart Breaks Bad Luck.

He Who Sings Frightens Away His Ills.

A Closed Mouth Catches No Flies.

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

Delay Always Heeds Danger.

Well-gotten Wealth May Lose Itself, But The Ill-gotten Loses Its Master Also.

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.

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?

Wine Taken In Moderation Never Does Any Harm.

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.

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

I Am Almost Frightened Out Of My Seven Senses.

A Knight Errant Who Turns Mad For A Reason Deserves Neither Merit Nor Thanks. The Thing Is To Do It Without Cause

One Should Not Talk Of Hatters In The House Of The Hanged.

It Is Good To Live And Learn.

There Were But Two Families In The World, Have-much And Have-little.

The Man Who Fights For His Ideals Is Alive.

Necessity Urges Desperate Measures.

Desperate Measures

In The Night All Cats Are Gray.

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

Wit And Humor Do Not Reside In Slow Minds.

Whether It's The Pot That Hits The Rock Or The Rock That Hits The Pot , It's The Pot That Will Break Every Time

Alas! All Music Jars When The Soul's Out Of Tune.

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

Abundance, Even Of Good Things, Prevents Them From Being Valued

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.

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

He Who Gives Early Gives Twice.

The Knowledge Of Yourself Will Preserve You From Vanity.

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

Do You See Over Yonder, Friend Sancho, Thirty Or Forty Hulking Giants? I Intend To Do Battle With Them And Slay Them.

There Is Nothing Costs Less Than Civility.

When Good Luck Knocks At The Door, Let Him In And Keep Him There.

The Road To The Inn Is Much Better Than The Stay.

Riches Are Able To Solder Up Abundance Of Flaws.

He Had A Face Like A Blessing.

The Reason For The Unreason With Which You Treat My Reason , So Weakens My Reason That With Reason I Complain Of Your Beauty.

I Shall Be As Secret As The Grave.

I Know What's What, And Have Always Taken Care Of The Main Chance.

I Do Not Say A Proverb Is Amiss When Aptly And Reasonably Applied, But To Be Forever Discharging Them, Right Or Wrong, Hit Or Miss, Renders Conversation Insipid And Vulgar.

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.

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

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

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

Every Production Must Resemble Its Author.

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

Procrastination

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

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

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

They Who Lose Today May Win Tomorrow.

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

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.

The Journey Is Better Than The Inn".

Time Ripens All Things; No Man Is Born Wise.

El Pan Comido Y La Compan? |a Deshecha. With The Bread Eaten, The Company Breaks Up.

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

Let Every Man Mind His Own Business.

When Life Itself Seems Lunatic, Who Knows Where Madness Lies? Perhaps To Be Too Practical May Be Madness. To Surrender Dreams, This May Be Madness ...maddest Of All Is To See Life As It Is And Not As It Should Be.

It Seldom Happens That Any Felicity Comes So Pure As Not To Be Tempered And Allayed By Some Mixture Of Sorrow.

It Is Past All Controversy That What Costs Dearest Is, And Ought To Be, Most Valued.

He Who's Never Loved Cannot Be Good.

Tis The Only Comfort Of The Miserable To Have Partners In Their Woes.

He Who's Down One Day Can Be Up The Next, Unless He Really Wants To Stay In Bed, That Is.

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

Never Meddle With Play-actors, For They're A Favoured Race.

I Do Not Believe That The Good Lord Plays Dice.

He Who Loses Wealth Loses Much; He Who Loses A Friend Loses More; But He That Loses His Courage Loses All.

I Find My Familiarity With Thee Has Bred Contempt.

It Is Better That A Judge Should Lean On The Side Of Compassion Than Severity.

History Is The Depository Of Great Actions, The Witness Of What Is Past, The Example And Instructor Of The Present, And Monitor To The Future.

One Swallow Alone Does Not Make A Summer.

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

That Which Costs Little Is Less Valued.

Maybe The Greatest Madness Is To See Life As It Is Rather Than What It Could Be.

Old, That's An Affront No Woman Can Well Bear.

Leap Out Of The Frying Pan Into The Fire.

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.

It Will Be Seen In The Frying Of The Eggs.

I Have Other Fish To Fry.

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

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.

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.

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.

When In Doubt, Lean To The Side Of #‎ Mercy .

Be Not Under The Dominion Of Thine Own Will; It Is The Vice Of The Ignorant, Who Vainly Presume On Their Own Understanding.

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.

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

Woman's Advice Has Little Value, But He Who Won't Take It Is A Fool.

We Must Not Stand Upon Trifles.

Give The Devil His Due.

Controlling My Temper Is Important, ... Sometimes It's Hard, But I Try.

One Of The Most Considerable Advantages The Great Have Over Their Inferiors Is To Have Servants As Good As Themselves.

Drink Moderately, For Drunkeness Neither Keeps A Secret, Nor Observes A Promise.

Until Death It Is All Life.

When God Sends The Dawn, He Sends It For All.

The Treason Pleases, But The Traitors Are Odious.

No Fathers Or Mothers Think Their Own Children Ugly; And This Self-deceit Is Yet Stronger With Respect To The Offspring Of The Mind.

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

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.

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.

Wit And Humor Belong To Genius Alone.

It's Up To Brave Hearts, Sir, To Be Patient When Things Are Going Badly, As Well As Being Happy When They're Going Well ... For I've Heard That What They Call Fortune Is A Flighty Woman Who Drinks Too Much, And, What's More, She's Blind, So She Can't See What She's Doing, And She Doesn't Know Who She's Knocking Over Or Who She's Raising Up.

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.

It Is Impossible For Good Or Evil To Last Forever; And Hence It Follows That The Evil Having Lasted So Long, The Good Must Be Now Nigh At Hand.

Be Slow Of Tongue And Quick Of Eye.

Be Brief, For No Talk Can Please When Too Long. Being Prepared Is Half The Victory.

Love Is A Power Too Strong To Be Overcome By Anything But Flight.

The Brave Man Carves Out His Fortune, And Every Man Is The Sum Of His Own Works.

Valor Lies Just Halfway Between Rashness And Cowardice.

We Are All As God Made Us And Frequently Much Worse.

Historians Ought To Be Precise, Faithful, And Unprejudiced; And Neither Interest Nor Fear, Hatred Nor Affection, Should Make Them Swerve From The Way Of Truth.

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

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.

Where One Door Shuts Another Opens.

Another Opportunity

Let Us Make Hay While The Sun Shines.

God Exalts The Man Who Humbles Himself.

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

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

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

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.

Faint Heart Ne'er Won Fair Lady.

A Little In One's Own Pocket Is Better Than Much In Another Man's Purse.

When We Are Asleep, We Are All Equal.

I Know Who I Am And Who I May Be, If I Choose.

Comparisons Are Odious.

Patience And Shuffle The Cards.

Fair And Softly Goes Far.

Blessings On Him, Who Invented Sleep.

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

The Wise Hand Does Not All The Tongue Dictates.

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

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.

Jealousy Sees Things Always With Magnifying Glasses Which Make Little Things Large, Of Dwarfs Giants, Of Suspicions Truths.

My Honor Is Dearer To Me Than My Life.

I Do Not Insist," Answered Don Quixote, "that This Is A Full Adventure, But It Is The Beginning Of One, For This Is The Way Adventures Begin.

Blessed Be Those Happy Ages That Were Strangers To The Dreadful Fury Of These Devilish Instruments Of Artillery, Whose Inventor I Am Satisfied Is Now In Hell, Receiving The Reward Of His Cursed Invention, Which Is The Cause That Very Often A Cowardly Base Hand Takes Away The Life Of The Bravest Gentleman.

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.

A Proverb Is A Short Sentence Based On Long Experience.

All Women Are Good - Good For Nothing, Or Good For Something.

When Life Itself Seems Lunatic, Who Knows Where Madness Lies?

Let Every Man Look Before He Leaps.

No Fathers Or Mothers Think Their Own Children Ugly.

He That Gives Quickly Gives Twice.

If You Are Ambitious Of Climbing Up To The Difficult, And In A Manner Inaccessible, Summit Of The Temple Of Fame, Your Surest Way Is To Leave On One Hand The Narrow Path Of Poetry, And Follow The Narrower Track Of Knight-errantry, Which In A Trice May Raise You To An Imperial Throne.

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

Beware, Gentle Knight - The Greatest Monster Of Them All Is Reason.

Knowing Who You Are

Man Have To Have Friends Even In Hell.

The Absent Feel And Fear Every Ill.

My Thoughts Ran A Wool-gathering.

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

Truth Will Rise Above Falsehood As Oil Above Water.

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

All Kinds Of Beauty Do Not Inspire Love; There Is A Kind Which Only Pleases The Sight, But Does Not Captivate The Affections.

Let Everyone Turn Himself Around, And Look At Home, And He Will Find Enough To Do.

I Must Speak The Truth, And Nothing But The Truth.

Speak The Truth

Believe There Are No Limits But The Sky.

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

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

As Ill-luck Would Have It.

I Would Do What I Pleased, And Doing What I Pleased, I Should Have My Will, And Having My Will, I Should Be Contented; And When One Is Contented, There Is No More To Be Desired; And When There Is No More To Be Desired, There Is An End Of It.

Can We Ever Have Too Much Of A Good Thing?

Too Much Of A Good Thing

You Are A King By Your Own Fireside, As Much As Any Monarch In His Throne.

The Ass Will Carry His Load, But Not A Double Load; Ride Not A Free Horse To Death.

I Have Always Heard, Sancho, That Doing Good To Base Fellows Is Like Throwing Water Into The Sea.

There's No Taking Trout With Dry Breeches.

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.

It Is The Part Of A Wise Man To Keep Himself Today For Tomorrow, And Not To Venture All His Eggs In One Basket.

Good Painter Imitates Nature, Bad Ones Spews It Up.

Tis A Dainty Thing To Command, Though 'twere But A Flock Of Sheep.

Nothing Costs Less Nor Is Cheaper Than Compliments Of Civility.

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

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?.

There Is A Strange Charm In The Thoughts Of A Good Legacy, Or The Hopes Of An Estate, Which Wondrously Removes Or At Least Alleviates The Sorrow That Men Would Otherwise Feel For The Death Of Friends.

Death Of A Friend

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

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.

At This The Duchess, Laughing All The While, Said: "sancho Panza Is Right In All He Has Said, And Will Be Right In All He Shall Say.

Health And Cheerfulness Make Beauty

A Knowledge Of Thyself Will Preserve Thee From Vanity.

They Must Needs Go Whom The Devil Drives.

It Is One Thing To Praise Discipline, And Another To Submit To It.

Man Appoints, And God Disappoints.

The Reputation Of A Woman May Also Be Compared To A Mirror Of Crystal, Shining And Bright, But Liable To Be Sullied By Every Breath That Comes Near It.

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

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

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

Fly Not, Cowards And Vile Beings, For A Single Knight Attacks You.

What Man Can Pretend To Know The Riddle Of A Woman's Mind?

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

The Ass Bears The Load, But Not The Overload.

Troubles Take Wing For The Man Who Can Sing.

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