Francisco Quevedo Quotes

Happy is he who is born to be a king, if, when he reigns, he shows he deserves to be one.

It is most unfortunate that the king should err at all: but if he must err, it is less shocking that he should do so on his own account, rather than by the advice of others.

In our days they count a man him who swears rather than him whose beard is grown.

El Sueno de las Calaveras

In dangers, the king who looks on orders with his eyes.

El Alguazil Alguacilado

Many more people fall ill through bores than through pestilence; and chatterers and meddlers kill many more than doctors.

El Mundo por de Dentro

The best sign of a man's goodness is neither to fear nor to owe anything, and the clearest sign of his badness is neither to fear nor to pay.

All sinners have less turpitude than the hypocrite, for the former, though they sin against God, do not sin with God or in God, whilst the hypocrite sins against God and also with God, since he takes Him as an instrument of his sin.

In fact the world is all agreed and calls commodity honour; so that men need only proclaim that they are honourable with- out being so to mock at the world.

Women only want a man to grant; for of course they always ask.

Since I teach how to kill I may well claim to be called Galen; and if my wounds were to ride on mule back they would pass for bad doctors.

There are some men who lie even when telling the truth, for they tell it with their lips whilst they lie in their hearts.