The Alchemist

by Paulo Coelho

But ever since he had been a child, he had wanted to know the world, and this was much more important to him than knowing God and learning about man’s sins.

I couldn’t have found God in the seminary, he thought, as he looked at the sunrise.

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

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.”

Personal Legend. It prepares your spirit and your 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.”

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.

he had to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief and

as an adventurer in quest of his treasure.

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.

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.

“It’s not what enters men’s mouths that’s evil,” said the alchemist.

“It’s what comes out of their mouths that is.”

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.

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

“Usually the threat of death makes people

a lot more aware of their lives.”

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

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.

“No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn’t know it.”