Paulo Coelho Quotes - Page 2

Love simply is.

Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally comes to realise that nothing really belongs to them.

It's 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... It's a force that appears to be negative, but actually shows you how to realize your destiny. It prepares your spirit and you 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, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It's your mission on earth.

I've noticed that loneliness gets stronger when we try to face it down, but gets weaker when we simply ignore it.

There was a time when people accepted magical experiences as natural. There were no priests then, and no one went chasing after the secrets of the occult.

We always know which is the best road to follow, but we follow only the road that we have become accustomed to.

Marie, let’s suppose that two firemen go into a forest to put out a small fire. Afterwards, when they emerge and go over to a stream, the face of one is all smeared with black, while the other man’s face is completely clean. My question is this: which of the two will wash his face? That’s a silly question. The one with the dirty face of course.’ No, the one with the dirty face will look at the other man and assume that he looks like him. And, vice versa, the man with the clean face will see his colleague covered in grime and say to himself: I must be dirty too. I’d better have a wash.’ What are you trying to say?’ I’m saying that, during the time I spent in the hospital, I came to realize that I was always looking for myself in the women I loved. I looked at their lovely, clean faces and saw myself reflected in them. They, on the other hand, looked at me and saw the dirt on my face and, however intelligent or self-confident they were, they ended up seeing themselves reflected in me thinking that they were worse than they were. Please, don’t let that happen to you.

There is a legend that everything that falls into the waters of this river -- leaves, insects, the feathers of birds -- is transformed into the rocks that make the riverbed. If only I could tear out my heart and hurl it into the current, then my pain and longing would be over, and I could finally forget.

An artist who desires very little and achieves it has failed in life.

If you have a past with which you feel dissatisfied, then forget it, now. Imagine a new story for your life and believe in it. Focus only on the moments when you achieved what you desired, and that strength will help you to get what you want.

Life becomes interesting for the possibility to fulfill a dream.

But emotions were, indeed, wild horses and they demanded to be heard. Brida let them run free for a while until they grew tired

And the camel driver had said, to die tomorrow was no worse than dying on any other day. Every day was there to be lived or to mark one's departure from this world.

Everybody has a creative potential and from the moment you can express this creative potential, you can start changing the world.

In fairy tales, the princesses kiss the frogs, and the frogs become princes. In real life, the pricesses kiss princes, and the princes turn into frogs.

All we have to do is understand that we're all here for a reason and to commit ourselves to that. Then we can laugh at our sufferings, large and small and walk fearlessly, aware that each step has meaning

...the best way to know who we are is often to find out how others see us. This doesn't mean that we should do what others expect us to do, but it helps us to understand ourselves better.

In a few more days I'd anticipated telling Veronika that our injections had cured her heart condition. But in light of her unscheduled departure form Villette my telling that particular lie will not be required. The majority of people who attempt suicide repeat that attempt until they succeed. I took a risk in lying to her about her condition, i decided to test the only remedy i have come to have any faith in: awareness of life. Until she finds out from some other doctor that she is perfectly healthy. She'll consider each day a miracle. Which in my view it is.

Instead of buying something for you that you want I give you something that is mine, truly mine. A gift, a sign of respect for the person I have in front of me. Now you have a little piece of me with you which I gave you freely and spontaniously.

People need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want.

Then I realize that words like "optimism" and "hope" which appear in all those self-help books that claim they'll make us more confident and better to cope with life, are just that: words.

Who dares, win

Flowers teach us that nothing is permanent: not their beauty, not even the fact that they will inevitably wilt, because they will still give new seeds.Remember this when you feel joy, pain, or sadness.Everything passes, grows old, dies, and is reborn.

That is why embittered people find heroes and madmen a perennial source of fascination, for they have no fear of life or death. Both heroes and madmen are indifferent to danger and will forge ahead regardless of what other people say.

It's now what enters men's mouths that's evil. It's what comes out of their mouths that is.

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.

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

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

The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.

You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit, it's because it wasn't true love.

What's the world's greatest lie?' the boy asked, completely surprised.'It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie.

Words are tears that have been written down. Tears are words that need to be shed. Without them, joy loses all its brilliance and sadness has no end.

You shouldn't have asked," I said. "Love doesn't ask many questions, because if we stop to think we become fearful. It's an inexplicable fear; it's difficult even to describe it. Maybe it's the fear of being scorned, of not being accepted, or of breaking the spell. It's ridiculous, but that's the way it is. That's why you don't ask-you act. As you've said many times, you have to take risks.

The soil needs the seed and the seed needs the soil. The one only has meaning with the other. It is the same thing with human beings. When male knowledge joins with female transformation, then the great magical union is created, and its name is wisdom. Wisdom means both to know and to transform.

The smell of baking bread wafts up to my cell and reminds me of the days I walked freely in the cafes. This tears me apart more than my fear of death or the solitude in which I now find myself.

Dreams are the language of God.

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

Fortunate are those who take the first steps.

People had been trying to understand the universe through love ever since the beginning of time.

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.

If someone isn't what others want them to be, the other become angry.

No one should ever ask themselves that: why am I unhappy? The question carries within it the virus that will destroy everything. If we ask that question, it means we want to find out what makes us happy. If what makes us happy is different from what we have now, then we must either change once and for all or stay as we are, feeling even more unhappy.

Human beings are the only ones in nature who are aware that they will die. For that reason and only for that reason, I have a profound respect for the human race, and I believe that its future is going to be much better than its present. Even knowing that their days are numbered and that everything will end when they least expect it, people make of their lives a battle that is worthy of a being with eternal life. What people regard as vanity-leaving great works, having children, acting in such a way as to prevent one's name from being forgotten- I regard as the highest expression of human dignity.

ليس لأحدنا أن يتنبّأ بأحداث اللحظة القادمة ، ومع ذلك ترانا نمضي قُدُماً ، لأننا نمتلك الثقة ، ولأننا نتحلّى بالإيمان

After all, what is happiness? Love, they tell me. But love doesn't bring and never has brought happiness. On the contrary, it's a constant state of anxiety, a battlefield; it's sleepless nights, asking ourselves all the time if we're doing the right thing. Real love is composed of ecstasy and agony.

We can't choose our lives, but we can decide what to do with the joys or griefs we're given.

Because you believed I was capable of behaving decently, I did.

If you love someone, you must be prepared to set them free.

it's best to accept life as it really is and not as I imagined it to be

I am love, I am music, she thinks. Let’s dance.

But love is always new. Regardless of whether we love once, twice, or a dozen times in our life, we always face a brand-new situation. Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere. We simply have to accept it, because it is what nourishes our existence. If we reject it, we die of hunger, because we lack the courage to stretch out a hand and pluck the fruit from the branches of the tree of life. We have to take love where we find it, even if that means hours, days, weeks of disappointment and sadness.The moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us. And to save us.

No one lights a lamp in order to hide it behind the door: the purpose of light is to create more light, to open people's eyes, to reveal the marvels around.

Men who have nothing to lose never give a thought for eternal life.

A prayer couched in the words of the soul, is far more powerful than any ritual.

People meet when they need to meet.

But why all these questions?Because I'm in love and I'm afraid of suffering.Don't be afraid, the only way to avoid that suffering would be to refuse to love.

I have always believed that in the lives of individuals, just as in society at large, the profoundest changes take place within a very reduced time frame.When we least expected it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not ready yet.The challenge will not wait.Life does not look back.A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.

No one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it

A shepherd may like to travel, but he should never forget his sheep.

In the small central square of Ljubljana, the statue of the poet stares fixedly at something. If you follow his gaze, you will see, on the other side of the square, the face of a woman carved into the stone of one of the houses. That was where Julia had lived. Even after death, Prešeren gaze for all eternity on his Impossible love.