The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream

by Paulo Coelho

“I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.”

“I didn’t know shepherds knew how to read,” said a girl’s voice behind him.

Oh that was really bratty

“It doesn’t matter,” he said to his sheep. “I know other girls in other places.”

Me when i lie

It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting,

It’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them.

When someone sees the same people every day,

they wind up becoming a part of that person’s life. And then they want the person to change.

someone isn’t what others want them to be, the oth...

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

A bar

“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.”

when each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.

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

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

in money there was magic; whoever has money is never really alone.

I’m going to become bitter and distrustful of people because one person betrayed me. I’m going to hate those who have found their treasure because I never found mine. And I’m going to hold on to what little I have, because I’m too insignificant to conquer the world.

I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does.”

he had to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief and as an adventurer in quest of his treasure.

beauty is the great seducer of men.”

there was a language in the world that everyone understood,

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.

The hills of Andalusia were only two hours away, but there was an entire desert between him and the Pyramids. Yet the boy felt that there was another way to regard his situation: he was actually two hours closer to his treasure

Perspective

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.

It was shepherds who were the first to recognize a king that the rest of the world refused to acknowledge. So, it’s not surprising that kings would talk to shepherds.”

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.”

when you can’t go back, you have to worry only about the best way of moving forward. The rest is up to Allah, including the danger.”

“Everyone has his or her own way of learning things,” he said to himself.

“When I’m eating, that’s all I think about. If I’m on the march, I just concentrate on marching. If I have to fight, it will be just as good a day to die as any other.

If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man.

someday this morning would just be a memory. But this was the present moment—the

It was the pure Language of the World. It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing.

Because, when you know that language, it’s easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it’s in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning.

Fatima arrived and filled her vessel with water. “I came to tell you just one thing,” the boy said. “I want you to be my wife. I love you.” The girl dropped the container, and the water spilled. “I’m going to wait here for you every day. I have crossed the desert in search of a treasure that is somewhere near the Pyramids, and for me, the war seemed a curse. But now it’s a blessing, because it brought me to you.”

A bit... forward?

When you are in love, things make even more sense, he thought.

“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.”

Arms are as capricious as the desert, and, if they are not used, the next time they might not function. If at least one of them hasn’t been used by the end of the day tomorrow, one will be used on you.”

Oh-

“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”

love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.”

He saw that Fatima’s eyes were filled with tears. “You’re crying?” “I’m a woman of the desert,” she said, averting her face. “But above all, I’m a woman.”

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. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly.”

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”

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

“So, we, their hearts, speak more and more softly. We never stop speaking out, but we begin to hope that our words won’t be heard: we don’t want people to suffer because they don’t follow their hearts.”

the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which most people give up. It’s the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one ‘dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.’

“Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.”

It said that the darkest hour of the night came just...

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

“Your eyes show the strength of your soul,” answered the alchemist.

when something evolves, everything around that thing evolves as well.

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