Quotes by Paulo Coelho

she, with her affection and her gaiety, had been largely responsible for him having rediscovered the meaning of life, her love had driven him to the far corners of the Earth, because he needed to be rich enough to buy some land and live in peace with her for the rest of their days. It was his utter confidence in this fragile creature, that had made him fight with honor, because he knew that after a battle he could forget all the horrors of war in her arms, and that, despite all the women he had known, only there in her arms could he close his eyes and sleep like a child.

Why do they make things so complicated?So that those who have the responsibility for understanding can understand., he said. Imagine if everyone went around transforming lead into gold. Gold would lose its value.Its those who are persistent, and willing to study things deeply, who achieve the Master Work.

What made you fall in love with a prostitute?I didnt understand it myself at the time. But Ive thought about it since, and I think it was because, knowing that your body would never be mine alone, I had to concentrate on conquering your soul.Werent you jealous?You cant say to the spring: Come now and last as long as possible. You can only say: Come and bless me with your hope, and stay as long as you can.

Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.

There are two kinds of idiots - those who dont take action because they have received a threat, and those who think they are taking action because they have issued a threat.

To me, a witch is a woman that is capable of letting her intuition take hold of her actions, that communes with her environment, that isnt afraid of facing challenges.

Do something instead of killing time. Because time is killing you.

People never learn anything by being told, they have to find out for themselves.

But the sheep had taught him something even more important: that there was a universal language in the world that everyone understood, a language the boy had used throughout the time that he was trying to improve things at the shop. It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in and desired.

I am tired of days that are all the same.

Going after what I believe in.

If theater is ritual, then dance is too... Its as if the threads connecting us to the rest of the world were washed clean of preconceptions and fears. When you dance, you can enjoy the luxury of being you.

Jealously would kill you from inside, if you water the plant of jealousy with anger instead of hard work

Dont allow your mind to tell your heart what to do. The mind gives up easily

Feelings do not grow old along with the body. Feelings form part of a world I don’t know, but it’s a world where there’s no time, so space, no frontiers.

As she had been walking from the ward to that room, she had felt such pure hatred that now she had no more rancor left in her heart. She had finally allowed her negative feelings to surface, feelings that had been repressed for years in her soul. She had actually FELT them, and they were no longer necessary, they could leave.

I am in the Aleph, the point at which everything is in the same place at the same time. Im at a window, looking out at the world and its secret places, poetry lost in time and words left hanging in space...sentences that are perfectly understood, even when left unspoken. Feelings that simultaneously exalt and suffocate.

The Warrior knows that no man is an island.He cannot fight alone; whatever his plan, he depends on other people. He needs to discuss his strategy, to ask for help, and, in moments of relaxation, to have someone with whom he can sit by the fire, someone he can regale with tales of battle.

Knowing someone’s name meant knowing that the other person was a human being and not “the enemy.” Knowing someone’s name transformed him into a unique and special individual, with a past and a future, with ancestors and possibly descendants, a person who has known triumphs and failures. People are their names; they’re proud of them; they repeat them thousands of times in their lifetime and identify with them. It’s the first word they learn after “Daddy” and “Mummy.

She hated the love she had been given, because it had asked for nothing in return, which was absurd, unreal, against the laws of nature