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Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.

— Miguel de Cervantes Misattributed

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Source and credibility

Miguel de Cervantes very probably did not say this. Wikiquote lists it as misattributed.

Source: This quote did not appear in Cervantes' Don Quixote, but instead a 1965 Broadway musical by Dale Wasserman titled Man of La Mancha, which was inspired by Don Quixote.
Source quality: Source identified Names the work or year, but without an exact location.

More by Miguel de Cervantes

I must speak the truth, and nothing but the truth.

El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) (1605)

Can we ever have too much of a good thing?

El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) (1605)

It is a common proverb, beauteous princess, that diligence is the mother of good fortune.

El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) (1605)

There is a time for some things, and a time for all things; a time for great things, and a time for small things.

El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) (1605)

"There is no book so bad," said the bachelor, "but something good may be found in it."

El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) (1605)

You are a devil at everything, and there is no kind of thing in the 'versal world but what you can turn your hand to.

El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) (1605)

Every man is as Heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.

El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) (1605)

A good repentance is the best medicine for diseases of the soul.

Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda) (1617)

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More quotes by Miguel de Cervantes

There's not the least thing can be said or done, but people will talk and find fault.

El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) (1605)

Fear is sharp-sighted, and can see things underground, and much more in the skies.

El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) (1605)

Take care, Your Worship, those things over there are not giants but windmills.

El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) (1605)

Fortune leaves always some door open to come at a remedy.

El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) (1605)

By a small sample we may judge of the whole piece.

El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) (1605)

All Miguel de Cervantes quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Miguel de Cervantes (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.