I've just finished reading
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho for the second time. I'm considering picking it back up and reading it a third time and actually taking the time to really think deeply about the words and its message. Every time I've read it I cry, because I feel my heart is starting to talk to me again.
I'm not going to give a plot synopsis of the book, so if you want to experience the true magic the words can have, I suggest you read it. At only 167 pages it's a short read for a weekend afternoon. Don't skip the author's introduction though. That's where some of the most powerful words are found.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book. Every time I read them I feel as if the Soul of the World is reaching out to me.
"But if you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World, and you understand why you are here." (Introduction)
"What's world's greatest lie?" the boy asked completely surprised.
"It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control over what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie."
"Maybe she didn't even remember him. He was sure that it made no difference to her on which day he appeared: for her, every day was the same, and 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."
"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it."
"Never stop dreaming," the old king had said. "Follow the omens."
"The boy was beginning to understand that 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."
"At that moment, it seemed to him that time stood still, and the Soul of the World surged within him. When he looked into her dark eyes..., he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke--the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart. It was love. ... 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."
"The future belongs to God, and it is only he who reveals it, under extraordinary circumstances. How do I guess at the future? Based on the present. The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better .Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity."
"It's not what enters men's mouths that's evil," said the alchemist. "It's what comes out of their mouths that is."
"You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his Personal Legend. If he abandons that pursuit, it's because it wasn't true love... the love that speaks the Language of the World."
" If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return."
"The existence of this world is simply a guarantee that there exists a world that is perfect. God created the world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and the marvels of his wisdom."
"...all you have to do is contemplate a simple grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation."
"Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World, and it will one day return there."
"...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 encouter with God and with eternity."
" The boy reached through to the Soul of the World, and saw that it was part of the Soul of God. And he saw that the Soul of God was his own soul. And that he, a boy, could perform miracles."
"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."
