The Alchemist

by Paulo Coelho

when you want something, the whole universe conspires to help you.

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

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

There must be a language that doesn’t depend on words,

“You must always know what it is that you want,”

… The closer one gets to realizing his Personal Legend, the more that Personal Legend becomes his true reason for being, thought the boy.

“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.”