Your Morning Cervantes
For Thursday, May 22nd, 2025
Week 115 of our regular morning feature here at Friedman of the Plains Worldwide in which we highlight the great words and works of great men and women, as well as those who are insufferable, delusional, and even fictional.
This Week Miguel de Cervantes
“...a great man who is vicious will only be a great doer of evil, and a rich man who is not liberal will be only a miserly beggar; for the possessor of wealth is not made happy by possessing it, but by spending it - and not by spending as he please but by knowing how to spend it well. To the poor gentleman there is no other way of showing that he is a gentleman than by virtue, by being affable, well-bred, courteous, gentle-mannered and helpful; not haughty, arrogant or censorious, but above all by being charitable...and no one who sees him adorned with the virtues I have mentioned, will fail to recognize and judge him, though he know him not, to be of good stock.”
On the eve of the third year, JP Sartre, with whom Satan had entrusted this corner of Hell, took me from the room that housed Ayn Rand and Tucker Carlson, saying, "Upon reviewing your file, you need to be more severely punished." As we entered the new room, he told me, "Here is Mr. Dickens, and here is Senor Cervantes. They have agreed, as a condition of their Purgatorial sentence, to discuss 'A Christmas Carol' incessantly for the next 42 years. Ring the bell if you require refreshments."
And we elected the rich man who is vicious twice. Woe is us. Now you tell us, Miguel!