Don Quixote
Important Quotations Explained
1. [F]or
what I want of Dulcinea del Toboso she is as good as the greatest
princess in the land. For not all those poets who praise ladies
under names which they choose so freely, really have such mistresses.
. . .I am quite satisfied. . . to imagine and believe that the good
Aldonza Lorenzo is so lovely and virtuous. . . .
2. I
shall never be fool enough to turn knight-errant. For I see quite
well that it’s not the fashion now to do as they did in the olden
days when they say those famous knights roamed the world.
4. Great
hearts, my dear master, should be patient in misfortune as well
as joyful in prosperity. And this I judge from myself. For if I
was merry when I was Governor now that I’m a squire on foot I’m
not sad, for I’ve heard tell that Fortune, as they call her, is
a drunken and capricious woman and, worse still, blind; and so she
doesn’t see what she’s doing, and doesn’t know whom she is casting
down or raising up.







