The Alchemist

by Paulo Coelho

“They are so used to me that they know my schedule,” he muttered. Thinking about that for a moment, he realized that it could be the other way around: that it was he who had become accustomed to their schedule.

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.

Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.

“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.”

People say strange things, the boy thought. Sometimes it’s better to be with the sheep, who don’t say anything.

“If you start out by promising what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work toward getting it.”

When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.

intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it’s all written there.

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

“We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand.”

the world has a soul, and that whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of things.

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. You’ll 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 we’re living right now.”

Every day was there to be lived or to mark one’s departure from this world.

“It’s not what enters men’s mouths that’s evil,” said the alchemist. “It’s what comes out of their mouths that is.”

“Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure.”

“You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say. That way, you’ll never have to fear an unanticipated blow.”

People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them.

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

‘dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.’

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

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”

Lead will play its role until the world has no further need for lead; and then lead will have to turn itself into gold.

when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.”

Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are.”