It was a hard life, a life of poverty, of incessant struggle, of toil ill paid, of disappointment, but Cervantes carried within himself the antidote … - Miguel de Cervantes

In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing.

Yaşamda ölümü
Hastalıkta sağlığı arıyorum,
Mahpusta özgürlüğü
Kapalı yerde çıkışı
Hainde ise sadakati.
Fakat kendisinden
asla bir şey beklemediğim talihim
Tanrı'yla anlaşmış ki
İmkansızı isterim diye
Mümkün olanı da vermez bana.

Laughter distances us from that which is ugly and therefore potentially distressing, and indeed enables us to obtain paradoxical pleasure and therapeutic benefit from it.