There is also this benefit in brag, that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor him by all means, draw it all out, and hold him to it.
Meaning of the quote
When someone boasts or brags, they are often revealing their own hopes and dreams without realizing it. Instead of getting upset, it's best to encourage them to talk more about their aspirations. By listening and engaging with them, you can better understand what's important to them.
About Miguel De Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes, the renowned Spanish writer, is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world’s most influential novelists. He is best known for his masterpiece, the novel Don Quixote, which has been hailed as the “best book of all time” and the “best and most central work in world literature”. Cervantes had a life marked by hardship and obscurity, but his profound impact on literature is undeniable.
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When the severity of the law is to be softened, let pity, not bribes, be the motive.
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Modesty, tis a virtue not often found among poets, for almost every one of them thinks himself the greatest in the world.
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No padlocks, bolts, or bars can secure a maiden better than her own reserve.
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Delay always breeds danger; and to protract a great design is often to ruin it.
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Never stand begging for that which you have the power to earn.
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Love and war are the same thing, and stratagems and policy are as allowable in the one as in the other.
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A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world, as a public indecency.
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From reading too much, and sleeping too little, his brain dried up on him and he lost his judgment.
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Tell me thy company, and I’ll tell thee what thou art.
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Tis a dainty thing to command, though twere but a flock of sheep.
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One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world will be better for this.
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To be prepared is half the victory.
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No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly.
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Liberty, as well as honor, man ought to preserve at the hazard of his life, for without it life is insupportable.
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True valor lies between cowardice and rashness.
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The knowledge of yourself will preserve you from vanity.
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Truth indeed rather alleviates than hurts, and will always bear up against falsehood, as oil does above water.
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That’s the nature of women, not to love when we love them, and to love when we love them not.
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The most difficult character in comedy is that of the fool, and he must be no simpleton that plays that part.
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Every man is the son of his own works.
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The gratification of wealth is not found in mere possession or in lavish expenditure, but in its wise application.
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Those who’ll play with cats must expect to be scratched.
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Well, there’s a remedy for all things but death, which will be sure to lay us flat one time or other.
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I have always heard, Sancho, that doing good to base fellows is like throwing water into the sea.
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There is nothing so subject to the inconstancy of fortune as war.
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There is no greater folly in the world than for a man to despair.
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He had a face like a blessing.
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Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes.
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For a man to attain to an eminent degree in learning costs him time, watching, hunger, nakedness, dizziness in the head, weakness in the stomach, and other inconveniences.
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That which costs little is less valued.
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Proverbs are short sentences drawn from long experience.
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Our greatest foes, and whom we must chiefly combat, are within.
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There are only two families in the world, my old grandmother used to say, the Haves and the Have-nots.
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Man appoints, and God disappoints.
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In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.
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It is one thing to praise discipline, and another to submit to it.
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To withdraw is not to run away, and to stay is no wise action, when there’s more reason to fear than to hope.
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I do not say a proverb is amiss when aptly and reasonably applied, but to be forever discharging them, right or wrong, hit or miss, renders conversation insipid and vulgar.
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There is also this benefit in brag, that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor him by all means, draw it all out, and hold him to it.
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Every man is as heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.
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Truth may be stretched, but cannot be broken, and always gets above falsehood, as does oil above water.
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Our hours in love have wings; in absence, crutches.
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I believe there’s no proverb but what is true; they are all so many sentences and maxims drawn from experience, the universal mother of sciences.
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Truth will rise above falsehood as oil above water.
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Fear has many eyes and can see things underground.
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Time ripens all things; no man is born wise.
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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.
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The eyes those silent tongues of love.
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He preaches well that lives well.
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It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow.
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Thou hast seen nothing yet.
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He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses his courage loses all.
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A closed mouth catches no flies.
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When thou art at Rome, do as they do at Rome.
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Be a terror to the butchers, that they may be fair in their weight; and keep hucksters and fraudulent dealers in awe, for the same reason.
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Drink moderately, for drunkeness neither keeps a secret, nor observes a promise.
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Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory.
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Virtue is the truest nobility.
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One of the most considerable advantages the great have over their inferiors is to have servants as good as themselves.
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Jests that give pains are no jests.
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Pray look better, Sir… those things yonder are no giants, but windmills.
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Valor lies just halfway between rashness and cowardice.
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The bow cannot always stand bent, nor can human frailty subsist without some lawful recreation.
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There’s no taking trout with dry breeches.
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‘Tis ill talking of halters in the house of a man that was hanged.
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A person dishonored is worst than dead.
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Laziness never arrived at the attainment of a good wish.
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Fair and softly goes far.
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God bears with the wicked, but not forever.
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Alas! all music jars when the soul’s out of tune.
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Tis the only comfort of the miserable to have partners in their woes.
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Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our deeds.
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