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palabras and hechos—in
some people would never have loved if they had not heard of love.
Somewhere in La Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing.
Our gentleman was approximately fifty years old; his complexion was weathered, his flesh scrawny, his face gaunt, and he was a very early riser and a great lover of the hunt.
But this does not matter very much to our story; in its telling there is absolutely no deviation from the truth.
The reason for the unreason to which my reason turns so weakens my reason that with reason I complain of thy beauty.
exceedingly agreeable thoughts,
soon, for the toil and weight of arms cannot be borne if one does not control the stomach.”
‘The devil can hide behind the cross.’
at times the just must pay for sinners.
Mari Gutiérrez.
A few other details were worthy of notice, but they are of little importance and relevance to the true account of this history, for no history is bad if it is true.
for one may say of knight errantry what is said of love: it makes all things equal.”
“Señor, one swallow does not a summer make.
and the parts that modesty hides from human eyes are such, or so I believe and understand, that the most discerning consideration can only praise them but not compare them.”
And just as the viper does not deserve to be blamed for its venom, although it kills, since it was given the venom by nature, I do not deserve to be reproved for being beautiful, for beauty in the chaste woman is like a distant fire or sharp-edged sword: they do not burn or cut the person who does not approach them.
As luck and the devil, who is not always sleeping, would have it,
Maybe you go looking for one thing and find another.
And, as the old saying goes, the cat chased the rat, the rat chased the rope, the rope chased the stick:
and stop going from pillar to post and from bad to worse, as they say.”
what greater joy can there be in the world, what pleasure can equal that of conquering in battle and defeating one’s enemy? None, most certainly there is none.”
“You should know, Sancho, that a man is not worth more than any other if he does not do more than any other.
And I want your reverence to know that I am a knight from La Mancha, named Don Quixote, and it is my occupation and profession to wander the world righting wrongs and rectifying injuries.”
The Knight of the Sorrowful Face.”
