Paulo Coelho's Quotes & Sayings

Eat when it's time to eat. And move along when it's time to move along. — Paulo Coelho

It's inevitable to lose from time to time. The point is: don't get used to defeats. — Paulo Coelho

The ship is safest when it is in port, but that's not what ships were built for. — Paulo Coelho

He felt the urge to go into the desert, to see if it's silence held the answers to his questions. — Paulo Coelho

Life has many ways of testing a person's will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen all at once. — Paulo Coelho

The person who's right is just the person who's strongest. In this case, paradoxically, it's the cowards who are the brave ones, and they manage to impose their ideas on everyone else. — Paulo Coelho

It's not difficult for me to put my feelings into written form. I try to be concise and to go direct to the subject. This is what people like about my work, and what the critics hate. — Paulo Coelho

Victories and defeats form part of everyone's life - everyone, that is, except cowards, as you call them, because they never lose or win. — Paulo Coelho

Naturally, I seek consolation in other people's suffering. — Paulo Coelho

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. — Paulo Coelho

Everything has changed; it's just that we can't see it. — Paulo Coelho

Love one another, but let's try not to possess one another. — Paulo Coelho

It's important though to distinguish between religion and spirituality. — Paulo Coelho

Look me in the eye, and never forget what I'm about to tell you. There are only two prohibitions, one according to man's law, the other according to God's. Never force a sexual relationship on anyone, because that is considered to be rape. And never have sexual relations with children, because that is the worst of all sins. Apart from that, you're free. There's always someone who wants exactly what you want. — Paulo Coelho

This is what we call love. When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there's no need at all to understand what's happening, because everything happens within you. — Paulo Coelho

Time that never ends, that never passes, that remains in the present, where all of life's secrets lie. — Paulo Coelho

If it's still in your mind, it is still in your heart. — Paulo Coelho

We must dress according to the dictates of fashion, make love whether we feel like it or not, kill in the name of our country, wish time away so that retirement comes more quickly, elect politicians, complain about the cost of living, change our hairstyle, criticize anyone who's different, go to a religious service and beg forgiveness for our sins and puff ourselves up with pride because we know the truth and despise the other tribe who worships a false god. — Paulo Coelho

It's better to lose some of battles in the struggle for your dreams than to be defeated without ever even knowing what you're fighting for. — Paulo Coelho

It's not my story anymore: whenever I speak about the past now, I feel as if I were talking about something that has nothing to do with me. All that remains in the present are the voice, the presence, and the importance of fulfilling my mission. I don't regret difficulties I experienced; I think they helped me to become the person I am today, I feel the way a warrior must feel after years of training; he doesn't remember the details of everything he learned, but he knows how to strike when the time is right. — Paulo Coelho

The World's a dangerous place. It doesn't matter where you are, your'e always at risk of being approached by people who have no scruples about attacking, destroying, killing. And we never learn how to defend ourselves. We're all in the hands of those powerful than us. — Paulo Coelho

The roller-coaster is my life; life is a fast, dizzying game; life is a parachute jump; it's taking chances, falling over and getting up again; it's mountaineering; it's wanting to get to the very top of yourself and feeling angry and dissatisfied when you don't manage it — Paulo Coelho

Respect your soul: don't keep repeating "I'm going to make it". Your soul already knows that, what it needs is to use the long journey to be able to grow, stretch along the horizon, touch the sky. An obsession does not help you at all to reach your objective, and even ends up taking the pleasure out of the climb. But pay attention: also, don't keep saying "it's harder than I thought", because that will make you lose your inner strength. — Paulo Coelho

We often think that the ideal stance is to give up one's life for a dream: nothing could be further from the truth. In order to achieve our dream, we need to preserve our life and we must, therefore, know how to avoid those things that threaten us. The more we plan our steps, the more chance there is that we will go wrong, because we are failing to take into consideration four things: other people, life's teachings, passion and calm. The more we feel we are in control of things, the farther off we are from controlling anything. — Paulo Coelho

For many years I was trying to find answers only through books but then I realized that basically, life is about experience and the thing that you have to do is experience life instead of only reading about it. Reading is very important, but it's not enough. After reading, you have to take some decisions in your hands and move forward and be the human being that you are, and then going and meeting people and work. — Paulo Coelho

Let's go back to the train station,' she said. 'Or,
rather, let's come back to this room, to the day when we sat here together for the first time
and you recognised that I existed and gave me a gift. That was your first attempt to enter my
soul, and you weren't sure whether or not you were welcome. But, as you say in your story,
human beings were
once divided and now seek the embrace that will reunite them. That is our instinct. But it is
also our reason for putting
up with all the difficulties we meet in that search.I want you to look at me, but I want you to take care
that I don't notice. Initial desire is important because it is hidden, forbidden, not permitted.
You don't know whether you are looking at your lost half or not; she doesn't know either,
but something is drawing you together, and you must believe that it is true you are each
other's other half — Paulo Coelho

Once upon a time, there was a prostitute called Maria. Wait a minute. "Once upon a time" is how all the best children's stories begin, and "prostitute" is a word for adults. How can I start a book with this apparent contradiction? But since, at every moment of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss, let's keep that beginning. — Paulo Coelho

You can't want to be happy, because that's too easy and too boring. — Paulo Coelho

When someone sees the same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary, they wind up becoming a part of that person's life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his — Paulo Coelho

Believing that other people are always better than you-better-looking, more capable, richer, more intelligent-and that it's very dangerous to step outside your own limits, so it's best to do nothing. — Paulo Coelho

The world has never been as divided as it is now, what with religious wars, genocides, a lack of respect for the planet, economic crisis, depression, poverty, with everyone wanting instant solutions to at least some of the world's problems or their own. And things only look bleaker as we head into future. — Paulo Coelho

- Exactly as you imagine. They remain tied to us through the feeling of bitterness. That is why Jesus said: "before going to the temple, go back and forgive your brother." One must be forever washing one's soul with the water of forgiveness. — Paulo Coelho

So long as you do no harm to another, change your opinion once in a while. Contradict yourself without being embarrassed. This is your right. It doesn't matter what others think -because that's what they will think, in any case. — Paulo Coelho

He's been sent by the devil to destabilize something that was already fragile. How could I fall in love so quickly with someone I don't even know? — Paulo Coelho

All life's battles teach us something, even those we lose. When you grow up, you'll discover that you have defended lies, deceived yourself, or suffered foolishness. If you're a good warrior you will not blame yourself for this, but neither will you allow your mistakes to repeat themselves. — Paulo Coelho

Remember the saying, What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger? It's true! — Paulo Coelho

He's seeing my soul, my fears, my fragility, my inability to deal with a world which i pretend to master, but about which I know nothing — Paulo Coelho

Graduates leave university and can't find a job. Old people reach retirement and have almost nothing to live on. Grown-ups have no time to dream, struggling from nine to five to support their families and pay for their children's education, always bumping up against the thing we all know as harsh reality. — Paulo Coelho

Tell your story: Yes, tell your story. Show your example. Tell everyone it's possible, and others shall feel the courage, to climb their own mountains. — Paulo Coelho

If there is suffering, then it's best to accept it, because it won't go away just because you pretend it's not there. If there is joy, then it's best to accept that too, even though you're afraid it might end one day. — Paulo Coelho

Success does not come from having one's work recognized by others. It is the fruit of the seed that you lovingly planted. — Paulo Coelho

He knew that any given thing on the face of the earth could reveal the history of all things. One could open a book to any page, or look at a person's hand; one could turn a card, or watch the flight of birds ... whatever the thing observed, one could find a connection with his experience of the moment. Actually, it wasn't that those things, in themselves, revaled anything at all; it was just that people, looking at what was ocurring around them, could find a means of penetration to the Soul of the World. — Paulo Coelho

It's the thought of having a dream come true that makes life interesting. All things happen for a reason. — Paulo Coelho

where there's life , there's hope . — Paulo Coelho

Much they would like to share their joy at some triumph or their grief at some overwhelming sadness, it's always best and safest to keep silent. — Paulo Coelho

It is not time that changes man nor knowledge the only thing that can change someone's mind is love. — Paulo Coelho

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. — Paulo Coelho

I always was a rich person because money's not related to happiness. — Paulo Coelho

that's why I want you to continue toward your goal. If you have to wait until the war is over, then wait. But if you have to go before then, go on in pursuit of your dream. — Paulo Coelho

I've always been a very restless person. I work hard, spend too much time looking after my son, I dance like a mad thing, I learned calligraphy. I go to courses on selling, I read one book after another. But that's all a way of avoiding those moments when nothing is happening, because those blank spaces give me a feeling of absolute emptiness, in which not a single crumb of love exists. — Paulo Coelho

We help each other by sharing our experiences. At the end of the day, the human condition requests one thing: to share. You are not here just to profit. If you don't share, you are nothing. I'll give you an example. You can be watching the most beautiful sunset, in the most beautiful place in the world, and this beautiful sunset can be an oppressive experience because you have nobody to share it with. But if you are in a bazaar or a train station full of people, even without any beautiful sunset, it gives you more emotion, more interaction, it becomes a kind of paradise. We are born to share, we are really born to share, so you have to do it. You have to share what you have. In my case, the Internet is a tool to share. My blog is free. Facebook is free. It's an inner cause I have: to use my celebrity to bring people together and share what I have and what each of them have. — Paulo Coelho

Past and future exist only in our memory. The present moment, though, is outside of time, it's Eternity. — Paulo Coelho

I highly recommend Marci Alboher's One Person/ Multiple Careers. It includes lots of practical strategies for living the slash. Malcom Gladwell is also a constant source of inspiration for me. In his book Outliers, Gladwell proposes that there are three criteria for meaningful work - complexity, autonomy, and a relationship between effort and reward - and that these can often be found in creative work.2 These criteria absolutely fit with what cultivating meaningful work means in the context of the Wholehearted journey. Last, I think everyone should read Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist3 - I try to read it at least once a year. It's a powerful way of seeing the connections between our gifts, our spirituality, and our work (slashed or not) and how they come together to create meaning in our lives. — Brene Brown

Well, let's distinguish religion from spirituality. I am Catholic, so religion for me is a way of having discipline and collective worship with persons who share the same mystery. — Paulo Coelho

Ester asked why people are sad.
"That's simple," says the old man. "They are the prisoners of their personal history. Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan. They never ask if that plan is theirs or if it was created by another person. They accumulate experiences, memories, things, other people's ideas, and it is more than they can possibly cope with. And that is why they forget their dreams. — Paulo Coelho

You don't need to climb a mountain to know that it's high. — Paulo Coelho

But my heart is agitated, It has its dreams, it gets emotional, and it's become passionate over a woman of the desert. It asks things of me, and it keeps me from sleeping many nights, when I'm thinking about her — Paulo Coelho

We must be amusing at all times and sneer at those who express their real feelings; it's dangerous for a tribe to allow its members to show their feelings. — Paulo Coelho

And, as the camel driver had said, 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. Everything depended on one word: "Maktub. — Paulo Coelho

See, it's not that I'm jealous of others. I just don't understand why they can be happy and I can't. — Paulo Coelho

People read a lot of stories about witches, fairies, paranormals, and children possessed by evil spirits. They go to films showing rituals featuring pentagrams, swords, and invocations. That's fine, people need to give free reign to their imagination and to go through certain stages. Anyone who gets through those stages without being deceived will eventually get in touch with the Tradition. — Paulo Coelho

Does a leaf, when it falls from the tree in winter, feel defeated by the cold?
The tree says to the leaf:
That's the cycle of life. You may think you're going to die, but you live on in me. It's thanks to you that I'm alive, because I can breathe. It's also thanks to you that I have felt loved, because I was able to give shade to the weary traveller. Your sap is in my sap; we are one thing. — Paulo Coelho

Death is our constant companion, and it is death that gives each person's life its true meaning. — Paulo Coelho

It's in the present that lies the secret: if you pay attention to the present you will be able to enhance it. — Paulo Coelho

Everyone believes the world's greatest lie ... " says the mysterious old man.
"What is the world's greatest lie?" the little boy asks.
The old man replies, "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. — Paulo Coelho

We hiked the Matterhorn and I stopped every minute to take pictures until he fumed: "Do you think all this beauty and grandeur can fit in a little square of film? Record things in your heart. It's more important than trying to show people what you're experiencing." My — Paulo Coelho

If I can understand what's going on
in the world, I can understand what's going on inside myself — Paulo Coelho

Why don't people's hearts tell them to continue following their dreams?" the boy asked the alchemist.
"Because that's what makes a heart suffer most, and hearts don't like to suffer."
From then on, the boy understood his heart. He asked it, please, never to stop speaking to him. He asked that, when he wandered far from his dreams, his heart press him and sound the alarm. The boy swore that, every time he heard the alarm, he would heed its message. — Paulo Coelho

The Warrior of the Light needs time to (her)self. And (s)he uses that time for rest, contemplation, and contact with the Soul of the World. Even in the midst of a battle, (s)he manages to meditate. — Paulo Coelho

It isn't expectations that carry us forward, it's our desire to go on. — Paulo Coelho

Whenever a religion tightens it's rules, a significant number of people break away and go in search of more freedom in their search for spiritual contact. — Paulo Coelho

We are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of prejudice, fear and guilt. There comes a time when our personal calling is so deeply buried in our soul as to be invisible. But know that it's still there. — Paulo Coelho

During her life Veronika had noticed that a lot of people she knew would talk about the horrors in other people's lives as if they were genuinely trying to help them, but the truth was that they took pleasure in the suffering of others, because that made them believe they were happy and that life had been generous with them. She hated that kind of person, and she wasn't going to give the young man an opportunity to take advantage of her state in order to mask his own frustrations. — Paulo Coelho

Time and the things that are imprisoned in time's memory — Paulo Coelho

Better to go hungry than to be alone. Because when you're alone - and I'm talking here
about an enforced solitude not of our choosing - it's as if you were no longer part of the
human race — Paulo Coelho

The war seemed a curse. But now it's a blessing, because it brought you to me. — Paulo Coelho

That man sitting on the steps made me understand that I was important to the world and to the history of my country. I felt necessary, and that's the best feeling a human being can have. — Paulo Coelho

All the world's roads lead to the heart of the Warrior. — Paulo Coelho

A] One is in a different place, so the protective barriers no longer exist. To begin with this can be alarming, but soon one gets used to it and starts understanding how many interesting things there are beyond the walls of one's garden. — Paulo Coelho

It's called the principle of favorability. When you play cards the first time, you are almost sure to win. Beginner's luck. — Paulo Coelho

My heart might be bruised, but it will recover and become capable of seeing beauty of life once more. It's happened before, it will happen again, I'm sure. When someone leaves, it's because someone else is about to arrive
I'll find love again. — Paulo Coelho

We don't know when the war will end, so we can't continue our journey," he said. "The battles may last for a long time, perhaps even years. There are powerful forces on both sides, and the war is important to both armies. It's not a battle of good against evil. It's a war between forces that are fighting for the balance of power, and, when that type of battle begins, it lasts longer than others - because Allah is on both sides. — Paulo Coelho

On some nights, he has nowhere to sleep, on others, he suffers from insomnia. "That's just how it is," thinks the Warrior. "I was the one who chose to walk this path. — Paulo Coelho

Saturn takes twenty-nine years to return to the point in the sky where it was at the moment we were born. Until that happens, everything seems possible, our dreams can come true, and any walls hemming us in can still be broken down. When Saturn completes this cycle, it puts an end to any romanticism. Choices become definitive and it's nearly impossible to change direction. — Paulo Coelho

From that day on, it was the desert that would be important. She would look to it everyday, and would try to guess which star the boy was following in search of his treasure. She would have to send her kisses on the wind hoping that the wind would touch the boy's face, and would tell him that she was alive. — Paulo Coelho

I walk every day, and I look at the mountains and the fields and the small city, and I say: 'Oh my God, what a blessing.' Then you realise it's important to put it in a context beyond this woman, this man, this city, this country, this universe. — Paulo Coelho

Record things in your heart. It's more important than trying to show people what you're experiencing. — Paulo Coelho

All love stories have much in common. I wen through the same thing at one point in my life. But that's not what I remember. What I remember is that love returned in the form of another man, new hopes, and new dreams. — Paulo Coelho

It's risky, falling in love. — Paulo Coelho

Sometimes happiness is a blessing, but generally it is a conquest. Each day's magic moment helps. — Paulo Coelho

Insanity is the inability to communicate your ideas. It's as if you were in a foreign country, able to see and understand everything that's going on around you but incapable of explaining what you need to know or of being helped, because you don't understand the language they speak there. We've all felt that. And all of us, one way or another, are insane. — Paulo Coelho

Our time on this earth is sacred, and we should celebrate every moment.
The importance of this has been completely forgotten: even religious holidays have been transformed into opportunities to go to the beach or the park or skiing. There are no more rituals. Ordinary actions can no longer be transformed into manifestations of the sacred. We cook and complain that it's a waste of time, when we should be pouring our love into making that food. We work and believe it's a divine curse, when we should be using our skills to bring pleasure and to spread the energy of the Mother. — Paulo Coelho

I believe it is better to live a dream rather than to simply dream it. The dream is the start of something greater, something that impels us to make daring decisions. And it's true that the person who pursues a dream takes many risks. But the person who does not runs risks that are even greater. — Paulo Coelho

Going after a dream has a price. It may mean abandoning our habits, it may make us go through hardships, or it may lead us to disappointment, et cetera. But however costly it may be, it is never as high as the price paid by people who didn't live. Because one day they will look back and hear their own heart say: 'I wasted my life.' " He is not making things any easier. Let's suppose — Paulo Coelho

We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that yours is the only path. — Paulo Coelho

My dear, everyone makes mistakes. You're forgiven, but I cannot force that forgiveness on you. It's your choice. — Paulo Coelho

I, too, get scared, but it's at such moments that I discover a wisdom that is beyond me, and I go forward. — Paulo Coelho

It's always necessary to know when a stage of one's life has ended. If you stubbornly cling to it after the need has passed,you lose the joy and meaning of the rest. And you risk being shaken to your senses by God. — Paulo Coelho

I can't control myself, that's my problem. — Paulo Coelho

I already know. And it has nothing to do with what you can see happening in my body; it's what's happening in my soul. — Paulo Coelho