Quotes by Paulo Coelho

I needed to choose between the one thing that really filled m thoughts-my love for that woman-and losing my freedom and all the choices that the future promised me. To be honest, the decision was easy.-Lukas Jessen-Petersen

I’ve been through all this before,’ he says to his heart.“ ‘Yes, you have been through all this before,’ replies his heart. ‘But you have never been beyond it.

As he was about to climb yet another dune, his heart whispered, Be aware of the place where you are brought to tears. Thats where I am, and thats where your treasure is.

Thy will be done, my Lord. Because you know the weakness in the heart of yourchildren, and you assign each of them only the burden they can bear. May youunderstand my love–because it is the only thing I have that is really mine, the only thing that I will be able to take with me into the next life. Please allow it to be courageous and pure; please make it capable of surviving the snares of the world.

My heart is a traitor,” the boy said to the alchemist, when they had paused to rest the horses. “It doesn’t want me to go on.” “That makes sense,” the alchemist answered. “Naturally it’s afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you’ve won.” “Well, then, why should I listen to my heart?” “Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. Even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be there inside you, repeating to you what you’re thinking about life and about the world.” “You mean I should listen, even if it’s treasonous?” “Treason is a blow that comes unexpectedly. If you know your heart well, it will never be able to do that to you. Because you’ll know its dreams and wishes, and will know how to deal with them. “You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say. That way, you’ll never have to fear an unanticipated blow.

She imagined herself both queen and slave, dominatrix and victim. In her imagination she was making love with men of all skin colors--white, black, yellow--with homosexuals and beggars. She was anyones, and anyone could do anything to her. She had one, two, three orgasms, one after another. She imagined everything she had never imagined before, and she gave herself to all that was most base and most pure.

You can either be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It all depends on how you view your life.

People just can’t cope with happiness.

It was shepherds who were the first to recognize a king that the rest of the world refused to acknowledge. So it’s not surprising that kings would talk to shepherds.

A responsible Warrior is not someone who takes the weight of the world on his shoulders, but someone who has learned to deal with the challenges of the moment.

If I could, Id write a huge encyclopedia just about the words luck and coincidence

I must have no fear of failure. It was my fear of failure that first kept me from attempting the Master Work.

The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter.

Playing the part of a charitable soul was only for those who were afraid of taking a stand in life. It is always far easier to have faith in your own goodness than to confront others and fight for your rights. It is always easier to hear an insult and not retaliate than have the courage to fight back against someone stronger than yourself; we can always say were not hurt by the stones others throw at us, and its only at night - when were alone and our wife or our husband or our school friend is asleep - that we can silently grieve over our own cowardice.

The most important experiences a man can have are those that take him to the very limit; that is the only way we learn, because it requires all our courage.

i had to test your courage,” the stranger said.“courage is the quality most essential to understand the Language of the World.”..“you must not let up, even after having come so far,” he continued. “you must love the desert, but never trust it completely. because the desert tests all men: it challenges every step, and kills those who become distracted.

But the Warrior never allows himself to be discouraged.

the world was in the hands of those who had courage to dream and to realize their dreams

Anyone who is observant, who discovers the person they have always dreamed of, knows that sexual energy comes into play before sex even takes place. The greatest pleasure isnt sex, but the passion with which it is practiced. When the passion is intense, then sex joins in to complete the dance, but it is never the principal aim.

Insanity is the ability to communicate your ideas. It’s as if you were in a foreign country, able to see and understand everything that’s going on around you but incapable of explaining what you need to know or of being helped, because you don’t understand the language they speak there.