The phoenix hope, can wing her way through the desert skies, and still defying fortune's spite; revive from ashes and rise.
Miguel De CervantesRead
But do not give it to a lawyer's clerk to write, for they use a legal hand that Satan himself will not understand.
Interpretation
This quote humorously critiques the legibility of legal writing.
Miguel De Cervantes humorously suggests that legal documents are so poorly written that even a devil would struggle to comprehend them. This reflects a broader criticism of the legal profession, implying that legal language is often unnecessarily complex and inaccessible to the average person.
In practice
In a speech about legal reform, one might use this quote to lighten the mood.
The phoenix hope, can wing her way through the desert skies, and still defying fortune's spite; revive from ashes and rise.
Patience and shuffle the cards.
It's up to brave hearts, sir, to be patient when things are going badly, as well as being happy when they're going well ... For I've heard that what they call fortune is a flighty woman who drinks too much, and, what's more, she's blind, so she can't see what she's doing, and she doesn't know who she's knocking over or who she's raising up.
When the head aches, all the members partake of the pain.
Though Gods attributes are equal, yet his mercy is more attractive and pleasing in our eyes than his justice.
If you are ambitious of climbing up to the difficult, and in a manner inaccessible, summit of the Temple of Fame, your surest way is to leave on one hand the narrow path of Poetry, and follow the narrower track of Knight-Errantry, which in a trice may raise you to an imperial throne.
You know why dogs have no money? No pockets. 'Cause they see change on the street all the time and it's driving them crazy. When you're walking them, he is always looking up at you. "There's a quarter...."
Humanity I love you because when you're hard up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink.
I was an ugly kid; when I was born, after the doctor cut the cord, he hung himself.
He was a long, stripy policeman, who flowed out of his uniform at odd spots, as if Nature, setting out to make a constable, had had a good deal of material left over which she had not liked to throw away but hardly seemed able to fit into the general scheme.
I've actually gone to the zoo and had monkeys shout to me from their cages, "I'm in here when you're walking around like that?"
Humor is the best means of surviving in a difficult world.
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