"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"
- Miguel de Cervantes
About this Quote
This quote by Miguel de Cervantes speaks with the power of experience and its capability to teach us important lessons. He recommends that sayings, or wise expressions, are derived from experience, which he calls the "universal mom of sciences." This indicates that experience is the source of all understanding, and that proverbs are just condensed variations of this knowledge. Cervantes is recommending that we should seek to experience to gain knowledge, instead of relying solely on the words of others. He is likewise indicating that proverbs are not just empty expressions, however rather, they are based on real-life experiences and can be relied on. Eventually, Cervantes is highlighting the importance of learning from our own experiences, in addition to the experiences of others, in order to get knowledge.
"Children that are raised in a home with a married mother and father consistently do better in every measure of well-being than their peers who come from divorced or step-parent, single-parent, cohabiting homes"
"A mother should give her children a superabundance of enthusiasm; that after they have lost all they are sure to lose on mixing with the world, enough may still remain to prompt fated support them through great actions"