Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote

Drawn from Cervantes’ great novel of the deluded knight-errant, this 1867 anthology gathers the sharpest sayings, proverbs, and reflections scattered across Don Quixote. Emma Thompson translated and compiled the passages, setting Sancho Panza’s homespun folk proverbs beside the Don’s lofty speeches on honor, love, poverty, and government, and she added a biographical sketch of Cervantes along with portrait engravings. Each excerpt carries a page reference back to its place in the original story. The result reads like a commonplace book, a way to sample the humor and moral shrewdness of Cervantes’ vast novel in small doses. For readers who want the flavor of the book without the full thousand-page journey, or who simply enjoy old sayings about human folly and good sense, it makes an inviting keepsake.