“ If you take a good woman into your house it will be an easy matter to keep her good, and even to make her still better; but if you take a bad one you will find it hard work to mend her, for it is no very easy matter to pass from one extreme to another. ”
Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605). copy citation
| Author | Miguel de Cervantes |
|---|---|
| Source | Don Quixote |
| Topic | women work |
| Date | 1605 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by John Ormsby |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/996/996-h/996-h.htm |
Context
“The first thing I would recommend him, would be to look to good name rather than to wealth, for a good woman does not win a good name merely by being good, but by letting it be seen that she is so, and open looseness and freedom do much more damage to a woman's honour than secret depravity. If you take a good woman into your house it will be an easy matter to keep her good, and even to make her still better; but if you take a bad one you will find it hard work to mend her, for it is no very easy matter to pass from one extreme to another. I do not say it is impossible, but I look upon it as difficult." Sancho, listening to all this, said to himself, "This master of mine, when I say anything that has weight and substance, says I might take a pulpit in hand, and go about the world preaching fine sermons;”
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