I am I, Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha

The great achievement is to lose one's reason for no reason...

from Book 1, Chapter XXV of Don Quixote
(translation by Edith Grossman)

The above is a quote from Don Quixote, which I read yesterday on my flight back from Grand Rapids. The sentences around it are:
"Therein lies the virtue," responded Don Quixote, "and the excellence of my enterprise, for a knight errant deserves neither glory nor thanks if he goes mad for no reason. The great achievement is to lose one's reason for no reason, and to let my lady know that if I can do this without cause, what should I not do if there were cause?

A different translation--by Charles Jarvis--of the same passage is:
"There lies the point," answered Don Quixote, "and in this consists the refinement of my plan. A knight-errant who runs mad with just cause deserves no thanks; but to do so without reason is the point--giving my lady to understand what I should perform in the wet if I do this in the dry.

I like the former better....


I am I, Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha
My destiny calls and I go
And the wild winds of fortune, shall carry me onward
Oh whithersoever they blow