Memorable quotes for
Man of La Mancha (1972) More at IMDbPro »

Miguel de Cervantes: I'm a poet.
The Duke: They're putting people in prison for that?
Miguel de Cervantes: No, no, no, not for that.
The Duke: Too bad.

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The Duke: I invent false information about a country and sell it to others stupid enough to believe it.
Miguel de Cervantes: Seems a sound proposition. What brought you here?
The Duke: A lapse of judgment. I told the truth.

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The Governor: We generally fine a prisoner all his possessions.
Miguel de Cervantes: All of them.
The Governor: It's not practical to take more.

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Aldonza: All right, you're a squire. How does a squire squire?
Sancho Panza: Well, first, I ride behind him. Then he fights. And then I pick him up off the ground.

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Don Quixote: ...that I may dedicate each victory to her and call upon her in defeat, and if at last I give my life, I give it in the sacred name of Dulcinea.

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Don Quixote: Dost not see? A monstrous giant of infamous repute whom I intend to encounter.
Sancho Panza: It's a windmill.
Don Quixote: A giant. Canst thou not see the four great arms whirling at his back?
Sancho Panza: A giant?
Don Quixote: Exactly.

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Sancho Panza: Many a man has gone to bed feeling well, only to wake up the next morning and find himself dead.
Don Quixote: That's a proverb.
Sancho Panza: Yes, Your Grace.
Don Quixote: I don't approve of them.

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Miguel de Cervantes: I shall impersonate a man. His name is Alonso Quijana, a country squire no longer young. Being retired, he has much time for books. He studies them from morn till night and often through the night and morn again, and all he reads oppresses him; fills him with indignation at man's murderous ways toward man. He ponders the problem of how to make better a world where evil brings profit and virtue none at all; where fraud and deceit are mingled with truth and sincerity. He broods and broods and broods and broods and finally his brains dry up. He lays down the melancholy burden of sanity and conceives the strangest project ever imagined - -to become a knight-errant, and sally forth into the world in search of adventures; to mount a crusade; to raise up the weak and those in need. No longer will he be plain Alonso Quijana, but a dauntless knight known as Don Quixote de La Mancha.

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Miguel de Cervantes: I've been a soldier and a slave. I've seen my comrades fall in battle or die more slowly under the lash in Africa. I've held them in my arms at the final moment. These were men who saw life as it is, yet they died despairing. No glory, no brave last words, only their eyes, filled with confusion, questioning "Why?" I don't think they were wondering why they were dying, but why they had ever lived. When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? To surrender dreams - -this may be madness; to seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness! But maddest of all - -to see life as it is and not as it should be.

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Aldonza: And you, Señor Don Quixote, your head is going to end up a stranger to your neck.

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Don Quixote: A knight must not complain of his wounds, though his bowels be dropping out.

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Don Quixote de La Mancha: [singing] To right the unrightable wrong / To love, pure and chaste from afar / To try, when your arms are too weary / To reach the unreachable star.

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Don Quixote: Not well? What is illness to the body of a knight-errant? What matter wounds? For each time he falls, he shall rise again, and woe to the wicked.

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Don Quixote: [to the innkeeper] See that your grooms care for my fleet-footed Rocinante, a horse of courage, sobriety, and chastity; the flower and glory of horseflesh.

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Aldonza: [singing, to Don Quixote] If you feel that you see me, not quite at my virginal best, / cross my palm with a coin, and I'll willingly show you the rest.
Don Quixote: [speaking] Never deny that thou art Dulcinea.

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The Barber: [singing, of Don Quixote] I can hear the cuckoo singing in the cuckooberry tree.
The Barber: [singing] If he says that that's a helmet, I suggest that you agree.
Sancho Panza: [singing] But he'll find it is not gold and will not make him bold and brave.
The Barber: [singing] Well, at least he'll find it useful if he ever needs a shave.

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Dr. Sanson Carrasco: A man who chooses to be mad can also choose to be sane.

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Sancho: Dying is such a waste of good health.

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Aldonza: You know what the worst crime of all is? Being born. For that you get punished your whole life.

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Sancho: They say one madman makes a hundred and love makes a thousand.
Aldonza: What does that mean?
Sancho: I'm not sure.

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The Innkeeper: When has a poor man ever found time to run mad? Of course he has money, he's a gentleman.

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Pedro: My mules are not so stubborn.
Aldonza: Fine. Make love to your mules.

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Captain of the Guard: If you need anything, just shout... If you're able.
Cervantes' Manservant: What did he mean by that?
Miguel de Cervantes: He meant to frighten us. I think they intend us to stay.

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Miguel de Cervantes: I have never had the courage to believe in nothing.

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Miguel de Cervantes: For me alone was Don Quixote born, and I for him. I give him to you.

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Captain of the Guard: This is what we've come to regard as the common room, for those who wait.
Miguel de Cervantes: Do they wait long?
Captain of the Guard: An hour... a lifetime... who knows?
Miguel de Cervantes: Do they all await the Inquisition?
Captain of the Guard: Ah, no, señor, not all of them. Most of these are merely thieves and murderers.

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Don Quixote: [about to attack the windmill] Ho, there, foul monster! Cease the knocking at thy craven knees and prepare to do battle!
Sancho Panza: [nearly simultaneously] Your Grace, I swear by my wife's little black moustache that's not a giant, it's only a...
[with a yell, Don Quixote charges off]

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Miguel de Cervantes: We are to appear before the Inquisition.
The Governor: Heresy?
Miguel de Cervantes: No, not exactly. You see, we were presenting an entertainment.
The Governor: An entertainment? How does an entertainment get into trouble with the Inquisition?
Cervantes' Manservant: Perhaps they found an entertainment is not always what it seems.
The Governor: [to the Manservant] But why are YOU here?
Cervantes' Manservant: Somebody has to stage-manage the stage.
The Governor: Ho, ho! These two have empty holes in their heads!

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Don Quixote de La Mancha: [singing] To fight for the right / Without question or pause / To be willing to march / Into Hell for a Heavenly cause!

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The Governor: [removing his cap respectfully] Cervantes, I think Don Quixote is brother to Cervantes.
Miguel de Cervantes: God help us - we are both men of La Mancha.

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Miguel de Cervantes: It is imperative each knight has a lady; a knight without a lady is a body without a soul. To whom would he dedicate his conquests? What visions sustain him when he sallies forth to do battle with evil and with giants?

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Alonso Quijana: Soft and fair, my friends; in last year's nests there are no birds this year.

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