He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses his courage loses all.

In 1607 he settled in Madrid where he lived and worked until his death. The picaroon strain already made familiar in Spain through the Picaresque novels of Lazarillo de Tormes and his successors appears in one or another of them especially in the Rinconete y Cortadillo. 31 October 1626) daughter of Fernando de Salazar y Vozmediano and Catalina de Palacios.

Because of financial problems Cervantes worked as a purveyor for the Spanish Armada and later as a tax collector. His influence on the Spanish language has been so great that the language is often called la lengua de Cervantes ("the language of Cervantes"). In 1597 discrepancies in his accounts of three years previous landed him in the Crown Jail of Seville.