Top quotes from Paulo Coelho books

I want to share with you some of the best quotes of Paulo Coelho extracted from his famous titles. He is one of my favorite author of all time and hope all Paulo Coelho fans love this collection. 

 Paulo Coelho’s most successful story was The Alchemist and is based on a young shepherd and his journey to the Egyptian pyramids in search of a treasure.

 The Alchemist

Year published: 1998

“Maktub,” (it’s written) she said. “If I am really part of your dream, you’ll come back one day.”

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”

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

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

“The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.”

“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. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living now. “

 “..to die tomorrow was no worse than dying on any other day. Every day was there to be lived or to mark one’s departure from this world.”

“And she already has her treasure: it’s you.”

“Believe that if Allah wants you to know something, someone will tell you.”

“Life is really generous to those who pursue their Personal Legend”

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than suffering itself.”

“Isn’t wine prohibited here?” the boy asked. “It’s not what enters men’s mouths that’s evil,” said the alchemist. “It’s what comes out of their mouths that is.”

“But my heart is agitated, it has its drams, it gets emotional, and it’s become passionate over a women of the desert. It asks things of me, and it keeps me from sleeping many nights, when I’m thinking about her”.

“The book is a film that takes place in the mind of the reader.”

“Alchemist is like getting up at dawn and seeing the sun rise when others are asleep”

“…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.”

11 minutes

Date published: 2003

 

“At every moment of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss.”

“While she was waiting for her Prince Charming to appear, all she could do was dream.”

“When we meet someone and fall in love, we have a sense that the whole universe is on our side.  And yet if something goes wrong, there is nothing left!  How is it possible for the beauty that was there only minutes before to vanish so quickly?  Life moves very fast.  It rushes from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds.”

“I can choose either to be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure.  It’s all a question of how I view my life.”

“(Don’t) listen to the malicious comments of those friends who, never taking any risks themselves, can only see other people’s failures.”

“Life always waits for some crisis to occur before revealing itself at its most brilliant.”

“If he was the man she wanted him to be, he would not be intimidated by her silence.”

“Now that she had nothing to lose, she was free.”

“I need to love–that’s all, I need to love.  Life is too short, or too long, for me to allow myself the luxury of living it so badly.”

“Always making plans for the future, and always being surprised by the present.” 

Veronica decides to die

Year published: 1998

 “Some people always want to help others. Just so that they can feel better than they really are”. 

“After all she was mad too and she no longer worried about pleasing anyone”.

“A person like everyone else in the world needs other people in order to be happy”. 

“Proud of being misunderstood, after all that was a price every genius had to pay”.

 “After all diplomacy is also the art of postponing decisions until the problems resolve themselves”. 

“There is always a gap between intention and action.”

“Nothing in this word happens by chance.”

“She had always spent her life waiting for something.” 

“She went to work every day always keeping to the same timetable, always making sure she wasn’t perceived as threat by her supervisors. She was contented but she didn’t struggle and hence she didn’t grow.” 

“Stay mad, but behave like normal people. Run the risk of being different, but learn to do so without attracting attention.” 

“I am tired of all this. But I am used to it too.” 

“I would say that if someone only has a short time to live and decides to spend that time sitting beside a bed, watching a man sleeping, then that must be love.” 

“Many people don’t allow themselves to love because of that. Because there are a lot of things at risk, a lot of future and a lot of past.” 

“You are someone who is different, but who wants to be the same as everyone else. And that in my view is a serious illness.”

“An awareness of death encourages us to live more intensely.” 

The Zahir

Year published: 2005

“The more she rejects me the more interested I become.”

“But you love me and I love you, isn’t that right?
I don’t know if you are asking me if I like your company, the answer is yes. If on the other hand you are asking me if I could live without you, the answer is also yes.”


“You are always looking for adventure in order to forget more important things. You always want the adrenaline flowing in your veins and you forget that the only thing that should be flowing through them is blood.”

“Who could love someone without humbling herself.”

“All you have to do is pay attention. Lessons always arrive when you are ready.”

“I don’t know if everyone is unhappy but they are all busy.”

“What the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over.”

“It’s not life that matters, but the journey.”

“Don’t you love me?

-- More than yesterday, less than tomorrow.”

“When I had nothing more to lose, I was given everything. When I ceased to be who I am, I found myself.”

“There are two kinds or world, the one we dream about and the real one.”

“In my world, everything is possible and everything is relative.”

“My day was good, let night fall.
(I lived a good life, now let my breath be gone.)”

“Using aggression as a defense against rejection.”

“A generation that dreamed it could revolutionize the world but ended up giving up to reality.”

“I don’t think you love me anymore, you're not jealous.”

By the river Piedra, I sat down and wept

Year published: 1994

 “The heart decides, and what it decides is all that really matters.” 

“At some point, we have each said through our tears, “I’m suffering for a love that’s not worth it.” We suffer because we feel we are giving more than we receive. We suffer because our love is going unrecognized. We suffer because we are unable to impose our own rules.”

“One doesn’t love in order to do what is good or to help or to protect someone. If we act that way, we are perceiving the other as a simple object, and we seeing ourselves as wise and generous persons. This has nothing to do with love. To love is to be in communion with the other and to discover in that other the spark of God.” 

“You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.”

“I could have. What does this phrase mean? At any given moment in our lives, there are certain things that could have happened but didn’t. The magic moments go unrecognized, and then suddenly, the hand of destiny changes everything.” 

“But love is much like a dam: if you allow a tiny crack to form through which only a trickle of water can pass, that trickle will quickly bring down the whole structure, and soon no one will be able to control the force of the current.”

“Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.”

“I’m going to fight for your love. There are some things in life that are worth fighting for to the end. You are worth it.”

“You’re making me happy. And happiness is something that multiplies when it is divided.”

“Follow your dreams, transform your life, take the path that leads to God. Perform your miracles. Cure. Make prophecies. Listen to your guardian angel. Transform yourself. Be a warrior, and be happy as you wage the good fight. Take risks.”

“Dreams mean work.”

The Devil and Miss Prym

Year published: 2000

“People want to change everything and, at the same time, want it all to retain the same.”

“Because you believed I was capable of behaving decently, I did.” 

”Good and Evil have the same face; it all depends on when they cross the path of each human individual human being"

“Playing the part of a charitable soul was only for those who were afraid of taking a stand in life. It is always fire easier to have faith in your own goodness than to confront others and fight for your rights. It is always easier to hear an insult and not retaliate than have the courage to fight back against someone stronger than yourself; we can always say we’re not hurt by the stones others throw at us, and it’s only at night – that we can silently grieve over our own cowardice.” 

“Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open, concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want. No one can hit their target with their eyes closed.” 

“Man needs what’s worst in him in order to achieve what’s best in him.” 

“Life can seem either very long or very short; according to how you live it.”

Aleph

Year published: 2011

  “It’s what you do in the present that will redeem the past and thereby change the future.”

“When faced by any loss, there’s no point in trying to recover what has been, it’s best to take advantage of the large space that opens up before us and fill it with something new.”

“Don’t be intimidated by other people’s opinions.  Only mediocrity is sure of itself, so take risks and do what you really want to do.”

“Anyone who knows God cannot describe Him. Anyone who can describe God does not know Him.”

Manual of the warrior of light

Year published: 1997

“A responsible warrior is not someone who takes the weight of the world on his shoulders, but someone who has learned to deal with the challenges of the moment.” 

“If you choose to follow the path of your dreams, commit yourself to it. Accept your path. Maktub A warrior of light always commits himself. He is enslaved to his dream but he is free in his steps."

“If you choose to follow the path of your dreams, commit yourself to it. Accept your path. Maktub A warrior of light always commits himself. He is enslaved to his dream but he is free in his steps."

“For the warrior, there is no “better” or “worse”; everyone has the necessary gifts for his particular path.”

 Brida

Year published: 1990

“The path to wisdom is not being afraid to make mistakes”  Brida quotes“Every human being has inside them something more important than him or herself – his or her Gift.”

“We are responsible for everything that happens in this world. We are warriors of light, and with the strength of our love and of our will we can change our destiny and that of many other people.” 

“Choosing one path means abandoning others – if you try to follow every possible path you will end up following none.”

“When you find your way you cannot be scared. You need to be brave enough to take wrong steps. The deceptions, failures, lack of enthusiasm, are tools that God places in our way to reveal the path.” 

“Face your path with courage, don’t be scared of people’s criticism. And, above all, don’t let yourself get paralyzed by your own criticism.”

“It’s necessary to take risks, and to follow certain paths whilst abandoning others. No one is able to choose without fear.”