According to Writer's Almanac:September 29 was the likely birthday of Miguel de Cervantes, "whose life was a series of misfortunes. As a young man, he fought in a war against the Ottoman-Turkish Empire, and he became a war hero, receiving special recognition from the king. But on the way home from the war, he was captured by pirates, held for ransom for five years, and chained to a wall for months at a time. He finally made it back to Spain, where nobody even remembered the battle he had fought in.
In 1595, he was charged with embezzlement, even though he was probably one of the only honest employees working for the government at the time. Having escaped five years of captivity in Africa, Cervantes now found himself imprisoned in his own country for a crime he didn't commit.
And it was in prison that Cervantes first got the idea for his masterpiece, Don Quixote..."
Being imprisoned twice while he did not do anything wrong, Miguel de Cervantes wrote this famous quote from Don Quixote:
"Freedom, Sancho, is one of the most precious gifts that heaven has bestowed upon men; no treasures that the earth holds buried or the sea conceals can compare with it; for freedom, as for honor, life may and should be ventured; and on the other hand, captivity is the greatest evil that can fall to the lot of man."
Writer's Almanac is one of the podcasts I subscribe to in Google Reader and try to listen to daily. The feed URL is below:
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510101
References:
Don Quixote, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Best Web Feeds Reader for Medical and General Information
Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.
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