Paulo Coelho's Blog, page 46

Hope

According to the dictionary: a tendency of the spirit to consider something as probable; the second of the theological virtues; expectation; supposition; probability. For the ancient Greeks: In one of the classic myths of the Creation, one of the gods, furious at the fact that Prometheus stole fire and in doing so gave men their […]

The black tunnel

“I saw only a tunnel, with a man pointing a gun at me and telling me to get out of the car.” I saw a tunnel too, except this one led to a hotel in Rio de Janeiro, the Glória Hotel. I looked at that hotel, expected the worst and thought to myself: “it’s not […]

20 SEC READ: Together (ENG, ESPA, PORT)

Illustration by Ken Crane _______________________ EM PORTUGUES: A brasa solitária EN ESPANOL: La brasa solitária _______________________ Juan always attended Sunday services at his parish. But then he began to find that the pastor always said the same things, so he stopped going to church. On a cold winter’s night two months later, the pastor paid […]

Different wells in your heart (Hafez)

There are different wells within your heart. Some fill with each good rain, Others are far too deep for that. In one well You have just a few precious cups of water, That “love” is literally something of yourself, It can grow as slow as a diamond If it is lost. Your love Should never […]

Peeling oranges

Ernest Hemingway, the author of the classic The Old Man and the Sea, went from moments of harsh physical activity to periods of total inactivity. Before sitting to write pages of a new novel, he’d spend hours peeling oranges and gazing into the fire. One morning, a reporter noticed this strange habit. “Don’t you think […]

TABACARIA – Fernando Pessoa (Alvaro de Campos)

Não sou nada. Nunca serei nada. Não posso querer ser nada. À parte isso, tenho em mim todos os sonhos do mundo. Janelas do meu quarto, Do meu quarto de um dos milhões do mundo que ninguém sabe quem é (E se soubessem quem é, o que saberiam?), Dais para o mistério de uma rua […]

Tobacco kiosk

by Fernando Pessoa ( Portuguese poet, 1888-1935 ) I am nothing I shall always be nothing I cannot wish to be anything. Aside from that, I have within me all the dreams of the world. Windows of my room, The room of one of the world’s millions nobody knows about (And if they knew about […]

20 SEC READING: the city on the other side

Illustration by Ken Crane A hermit from the monastery of Sceta approached Abbot Theodore:   ‘I know exactly what the purpose of life is. I know what God asks of man and I know the best way to serve Him. And yet, even so, I am incapable of doing everything I should be doing in […]

The magic of the yes

by Mia Zamora BEING an only child with overprotective parents, I grew up using “No” as my default answer to everything. Let’s go outside and play in the rain? No. Let’s ride a boat to the deep part of the sea and jump in? No. Let’s play hooky at school and go to the mall […]

10 Success lessons from Paulo Coelho – “The Alchemist” for entrepreneurs

by Biplap Gosh 1. Rejection doesn’t matter Paulo believed in himself. He believed that he was a good poet and that his poems were not suitable for small magazines. So he sent his poems to the ‘Escritores e Livros,’ a reputable literary column in a newspaper called Correio da Manha. But the newspaper humiliated him. […]