Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist (1988)

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The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better." — The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho
From that day on, it was the desert that would be important. She would look to it everyday, and would try to guess which star the boy was following in search of his treasure. She would have to send her kisses on the wind hoping that the wind would touch the boy's face, and would tell him that she was alive.

Paulo Coelho
"If good things are coming, they will be a pleasant surprise," said the seer. "If bad things are, and you know in advance, you will suffer greatly before they even occur."

Paulo Coelho
No matter how many detours and adjustments it made, the caravan moved toward the same compass point. Once obstacles were overcome, it returned to its course, sighting on a star that indicated the location of the oasis.

Paulo Coelho
I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living now.

Paulo Coelho
One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.

Paulo Coelho
It is said that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.

Paulo Coelho
Every search begins with beginner's luck. And every search ends with the victor's being severely tested.

Paulo Coelho
Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.

Paulo Coelho
I have inside me the winds, the deserts, the oceans, the stars, and everything created in the universe. We were all made by the same hand, and we have the same soul.

Paulo Coelho
Love is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the World. … It is we who nourish the Soul of the World, and the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that's where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are.

Paulo Coelho
If you come here, you will find a hidden treasure.

Paulo Coelho
The alchemists spent years in their laboratories, observing the fire that purified the metals. They spent so much time close to the fire that gradually they gave up the vanities of the world. They discovered that the purification of the metals had led to a purification of themselves.

Paulo Coelho
You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it's better to listen to what it has to say.

Paulo Coelho
When you possess great treasures within you and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.

Paulo Coelho
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.... The soul of the world is nourished by people's happiness.

Paulo Coelho
I ask myself: are defeats necessary?
Well, necessary or not, they happen. When we first begin fighting for a dream, we have no experience and make mistakes. The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.

Paulo Coelho
As he mused about these things, he realised that he had to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief and as an adventurer in quest of his treasure.

Paulo Coelho
I'm afraid that if my dream is realized, I'll have no reason to go on living.

Paulo Coelho
It's the oasis," said the camel driver. "Well, why don't we go there right now?" the boy asked. "Because we have to sleep.

Paulo Coelho
The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.

Paulo Coelho
Your money saved us for three days. It's not often that money saves a person's life.

Paulo Coelho
Every blessing ignored becomes a curse. I don't want anything else in life. But you are forcing me to look at wealth and at horizons I have never known. Now that I have seen them, and now that I see how immense my possibilities are, I'm going to feel worse than I did before you arrived. Because I know the things I should be able to accomplish, and I don't want to do so.

Paulo Coelho
It's true; life really is generous to those who pursue their destiny

Paulo Coelho
But when he thought to complain about the burden of its weight, he remembered that, because he had the jacket, he had withstood the cold of the dawn. We have to be prepared for change, he thought, and he was grateful for the jacket's weight and warmth. The jacket had a purpose, and so did the boy.

Paulo Coelho
And, when you can't go back, you have to worry only about the best way of moving forward.

Paulo Coelho
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.

Paulo Coelho
If I could, I'd write a huge encyclopedia just about the words luck and coincidence

Paulo Coelho
His way isn't the same as mine, nor mine as his. But we're both in search of our destinies, and I respect him for that.

Paulo Coelho
In the long run what people think about shepherds and bakers becomes more important for them than their own destinies.

Paulo Coelho