Quotes by Paulo Coelho

That was what made traveling appeal to him - he always made new friends, and he didnt need to spend all of his time with them. When someone sees the same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary, they wind up becoming a part of that persons life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isnt what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.

She would consider each day a miracle - which indeed it is, when you consider the number of unexpected things that could happen in each second of our fragile existences.

This is the present moment. Learn how to gobble it up without fear or guilt.

You are born, go to school, and attend university in search of a husband. You get married - even if he is the worse man in the world - just so that others cant say no one wants you. You have children, grow old, and spend the end of your days watching passersby from a chair on the sidewalk, pretending to know everything about life yet unable to silence the voice in your heart that says: You could try something else.

Its what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their destiny is.At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny. Its a force that appears to be negative, but actually shows you how to realize your destiny. It prepares your spirit and your will, because there is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, its because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. Its your mission on earth.

Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him. We, peoples hearts, seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer want to go in search of them. We speak of them only to children. Later, we simply let life proceed, in its own direction, toward its own fate. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for them—the path to their destinies, and to happiness. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place. So, we, their hearts, speak more and more softly. We never stop speaking out, but we begin to hope that our words wont be heard: we dont want people to suffer because they dont follow their hearts.

Because I dont live in either my past or my future. Im interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, youll be a happy man. Youll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment were living right now.

Don’t try to be useful. Try to be yourself: that is enough, and that makes all the difference

4 the first time, I will avoid anything that makes me suffer, because suffering is not a virtue.. I will not complain about life, saying, Everything is always the same and I have nothin 2 change it. Because Im livin this day as if it were my first and, while it lasts, I will discover things that I didnt even know were there.

Walk neither faster nor slower than your own soul, because it is your soul that will teach you the usefulness of each step you take.

No matter how you are feeling, get up every morning and prepare to let your light shine forth.

They spent days, nights, weeks and months talking, never accepting the fact that, good or bad, an idea only exists when someone tries to put it into practice

Waiting Hurts. Forgetting Hurts. But not knowing which decision to take is the worst of suffering.

Dreaming is very pleasant as long as you are not forced to put your dreams into practice.

Life becomes interesting for the possibility to fulfill a dream.

What you still need to know is this: before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which most people give up. It’s the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one ‘dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.’ “Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.

Never stop dreaming,” the old king had said.Follow the omens.

thats why I want you to continue toward your goal. If you have to wait until the war is over, then wait. But if you have to go before then, go on in pursuit of your dream.

Then, sometime during the fourth year, the omens will abandon you, because youve stopped listening to them.

...you are different from me, because you want to realize your dreams, I just want to dream...Im afraid it will all be a disappointment, so I prefer just to dream...