The Alchemist

A magical fable about following your dream.
• It is the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.
• It’s the simple things in life that are the most extra ordinary; only wise men are able to understand them.
• 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.
• The soul of the World is nourished by people’s happiness. And also by unhappiness, envy, and jealousy. To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation. All things are one. And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
• The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.
• It’s called the principle of favorability, beginner’s luck. Because life wants you to achieve your destiny.
• Beauty is the great seducer of men.
• It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accompanied with love and purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in and desired.
• Making a decision was only the beginning of things. 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.
• In the desert, disobedience means death.
• People need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want.
• Maybe God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date tree.
• In his pursuit of the dream, he was being constantly subjected to tests of his persistence and courage. So he could not be hasty, nor impatient. If he pushed forward impulsively, he would fail to see the signs and omens left by God along his path.
• It was the pure language of the world. It requires no explanation; just as the universe need s none as it travels through endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of only woman in his life, and that, with no need of words, she recognized the same thing. He was more certain of it than of anything in the world. He had been told by his parents and grandparents that he must fall in love and really know a person before becoming committed. But maybe people who felt that way had never learned the universal language. 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 future becomes 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 the love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world: Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning.
• The genies were the spirits of good and evil.
• So the tribesmen lived only for the present, because the present was full of surprises, and they had to be aware of many things.
• Courage is the quality most essential to understanding the Language of the World.
• Camels are traitorous: they walk thousands of paces and never seem to tire. Then suddenly, they kneel and die. But horses tire bit by bit. You always know how much you can ask of them, and when it is that they are about to die.
• Men dream more about coming home than about leaving.
• It is said that the darkest hour of the night came just before the dawn.
• 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.
• Alchemy: It is about penetrating to the soul of the world, and discovering the treasure that has been reserved for you.
• For wise men, gold is the metal that evolved the furthest.

Paulo Coelho