"It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow"
About this Quote
The phrasing matters. “Seldom happens” refuses the drama of absolute tragedy or absolute bliss; it’s probabilistic, street-smart wisdom. Cervantes isn’t selling despair. He’s puncturing the fantasy of uncut happiness, the kind of purity that belongs to fairy tales, propaganda, or youth. By insisting on “mixture,” he frames sorrow not as an external invader but as an ingredient. That’s the subtext: the problem isn’t that sorrow interrupts joy; it’s that we keep expecting joy to be uncontaminated.
Context sharpens the intent. Cervantes lived a life that reads like an adventure novel with the bills left in: war wounds, captivity, poverty, and late-blooming success. Don Quixote, his masterpiece, runs on the same dual fuel. Every comic triumph carries a bruise; every bruise contains a strange, stubborn dignity. The quote works because it doesn’t moralize or console. It recalibrates expectation. If happiness is always partly sad, then the adult task isn’t to purify it, but to recognize it while it’s here, bittersweet and intact.
Quote Details
| Topic | Happiness |
|---|---|
| Source | Later attribution: Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, 1993) modern compilationISBN: 9781853260360 · ID: XlC62hGHWl8C
Evidence:
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. voice so high , that we heard what he said , which was , “ Come back , my dear daughter ... it seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure , as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow ... |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Cervantes, Miguel de. (2026, February 10). It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-seldom-happens-that-any-felicity-comes-so-pure-76635/
Chicago Style
Cervantes, Miguel de. "It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow." FixQuotes. February 10, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-seldom-happens-that-any-felicity-comes-so-pure-76635/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow." FixQuotes, 10 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-seldom-happens-that-any-felicity-comes-so-pure-76635/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.
