Have you ever read The Alchemist or The Hazir, have they left an amazing sensation, which makes you crave more of those stories? How about you get to know the man behind that vision, who made it all possible- Paulo Coelho.
Paulo Coelho was born on August 24th, 1947, in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, and that marked the birth of a revolutionary. He wanted to be a writer from the get-go but his religious family discouraged him from following up that path because they thought it was a career that wouldn’t be prosperous. Knowing Paulo, he rebelled against his parents and Jesuit teachers and look followed up on his dreams and passion, at certain times he also contemplated suicide.
Paulo Coehlo’s Struggles
When he turned 17, his parents sent him to a psychiatric facility where he underwent electroshock therapies. He also spent quite a time in psychiatric wards. He enrolled in law school only to drop out of it to see the world and follow up his writing passion. Did you know that he was also jailed because of political activism?
After a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago De Compostela in Spain, he regained his faith and then wrote his first book the Pilgrimage. In 1988 he then published another masterpiece the Alchemist and that went on and on. His amazing work includes Eleven Minutes, Brida, Adultery, and many more.
Paulo Coelho’s Inspirational Sayings and Quotes
And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.
When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.
One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.
There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.
So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.
The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.
Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering.
The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.
If pain must come, may it come quickly. Because I have a life to live, and I need to live it in the best way possible. If he has to make a choice, may he make it now? Then I will either wait for him or forget him.
Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.
Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn’t have the courage to say “yes” to life?
Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.
When someone leaves, it’s because someone else is about to arrive.
Tell your heart that 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 encounter with God and with eternity.
Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused.
Don’t waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.
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.
When I had nothing to lose, I had everything. When I stopped being who I am, I found myself.
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.
A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires.
Nothing in the world is ever completely wrong. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.
When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.
Tears are words that need to be written.
Don’t give in to your fears. If you do, you won’t be able to talk to your heart.
If I am really a part of your dream, you’ll come back one day.
The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter.
There are moments when troubles enter our lives and we can do nothing to avoid them.
But they are there for a reason. Only when we have overcome them will we understand why they were there.
Now that she had nothing to lose, she was free.
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.
None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have Faith.
People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.
We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.
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.
But love is always new. Regardless of whether we love once, twice, or a dozen times in our life, we always face a brand-new situation. Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere. We simply have to accept it, because it is what nourishes our existence. If we reject it, we die of hunger, because we lack the courage to stretch out a hand and pluck the fruit from the branches of the tree of life. We have to take love where we find it, even if that means hours, days, weeks of disappointment, and sadness.
The moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us. And to save us.
I’ve been in love before, it’s like a narcotic. At first, it brings the euphoria of complete surrender. The next day you want more. You’re not addicted yet, but you like the sensation, and you think you can still control things. You think about the person you love for two minutes then forget them for three hours. But then you get used to that person, and you begin to be completely dependent on them. Now you think about him for three hours and forget him for two minutes. If he’s not there, you feel like an addict who can’t get a fix. And just as addicts steal and humiliate themselves to get what they need, you’re willing to do anything for love.”- By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
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.
People never learn anything by being told, they have to find out for themselves.
You are what you believe yourself to be.
Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.
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 or her own.
Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.
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.
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.
Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally comes to realize that nothing really belongs to them.
No one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it
In real life, love has to be possible. Even if it is not returned right away, love can only survive when the hope exists that you will be able to win over the person you desire.
Anyone who loves in the expectation of being loved in return is wasting their time.
Anyone who is in love is making love the whole time, even when they’re not. When two bodies meet, it is just the cup overflowing. They can stay together for hours, even days. They begin the dance one day and finish it the next, or–such is the pleasure they experience–they may never finish it. No eleven minutes for them.
Your eyes show the strength of your soul.
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.
How much I missed, simply because I was afraid of missing it.
The strongest love is the love that can demonstrate its fragility.
What is a teacher? I’ll tell you: it isn’t someone who teaches something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her best in order to discover what she already knows.
Our true friends are those who are with us when the good things happen. They cheer us on and are pleased by our triumphs. False friends only appear at difficult times, with their sad, supportive faces, when, in fact, our suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives.
Life is too short, or too long, for me to allow myself the luxury of living it so badly.
Anyone who is observant, who discovers the person they have always dreamed of, knows that sexual energy comes into play before sex even takes place. The greatest pleasure isn’t sex, but the passion with which it is practiced. When the passion is intense, then sex joins in to complete the dance, but it is never the principal aim.
After all, what is happiness? Love, they tell me. But love doesn’t bring and never has brought happiness. On the contrary, it’s a constant state of anxiety, a battlefield; it’s sleepless nights, asking ourselves all the time if we’re doing the right thing. Real love is composed of ecstasy and agony.
I’ve learned that waiting is the most difficult bit, and I want to get used to the feeling, knowing that you’re with me, even when you’re not by my side.
What’s the world’s greatest lie?… 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.
You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say.
Certain things in life simply have to be experienced -and never explained. Love is such a thing.
I am two women: one wants to have all the joy, passion, and adventure that life can give me. The other wants to be a slave to routine, to family life, to the things that can be planned and achieved. I’m a housewife and a prostitute, both of us living in the same body and doing battle with each other.
Life always waits for some crisis to occur before revealing itself at its most brilliant.
In love, no one can harm anyone else; we are each of us responsible for our own feelings and cannot blame someone else for what we feel. It hurt when I lost each of the various men I fell in love with. Now, though, I am convinced that no one loses anyone because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it.
Why do we have to listen to our hearts?” the boy asked.
“Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you will find your treasure.
Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.
When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.
“Be crazy! But learn how to be crazy without being the center of attention. Be brave enough to live differently.
Choosing a path meant having to miss out on others. She had a whole life to live, and she was always thinking that, in the future, she might regret the choices she made now. “I’m afraid of committing myself,” she thought to herself. She wanted to follow all possible paths and so ended up following none. Even in that most important area of her life, love, she had failed to commit herself. After her first romantic disappointment, she had never again given herself entirely. She feared pan, loss, and separation. These things were inevitable on the path to love, and the only way of avoiding them was by deciding not to take that path at all. In order not to suffer, you had to renounce love. It was like putting out your own eyes not to see the bad things in life.
It was the pure Language of the World. It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for 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 the future become unimportant. There are 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.
Stay mad, but behave like normal people. Run the risk of being different, but learn to do so without attracting attention.
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.
Behind the mask of ice that people wear, there beats a heart of the fire.
If you start by promising what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work towards getting it.
Why is patience so important?Because it makes us pay attention.
No one should ever ask themselves that: why am I unhappy? The question carries within it the virus that will destroy everything. If we ask that question, it means we want to find out what makes us happy. If what makes us happy is different from what we have now, then we must either change once and for all or stay as we are, feeling even more unhappy.
We pretend to be strong because we are weak.
Love is not to be found in someone else, but in ourselves; we simply awaken it. But in order to do that, we need another person. The universe only makes sense when we have someone to share our feelings with.
Yes, my mind was wandering. I wished I were there with someone who could bring peace to my heart someone with whom I could spend a little time without being afraid that I would lose him the next day. With that reassurance, the time would pass more slowly. We could be silent for a while because we’d know we had the rest of our lives together for conversation. I wouldn’t have to worry about serious matters, about difficult decisions and hard words.
Love is like a narcotic. At first, it brings the euphoria of complete surrender. The next day, you want more. You’re not addicted yet, but you like the sensation, and you think you can still control things. You think about the person you love for two minutes, and forget them for three hours. But then you get used to that person, and you begin to be completely dependent on them. Now you think about him for three hours and forget him for two minutes. If he’s not there, you feel like an addict who can’t get a fix. And just as addicts steal and humiliate themselves to get what they need, you’re willing to do anything for love.
Don’t bother trying to explain your emotions. Live everything as intensely as you can and keep whatever you felt like a gift from God. The best way to destroy the bridge between the visible and invisible is by trying to explain your emotions.
You have to take risks, he said. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen. Every day, God gives us the sun–and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day, we try to pretend that we haven’t perceived that moment, that it doesn’t exist–that today is the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover that magic moment. It may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like putting our front-door key in the lock; it may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. But that moment exists–a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.
Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life.
Maktub” (It is written.)
Don’t allow your mind to tell your heart what to do. The mind gives up easily
He knew one of the women well and had shared his universe with her. They had seen the same mountains, and the same trees, although each of them had seen them differently. She knew his weaknesses, his moments of hatred, of despair. Yet she was there at his side. They shared the same universe.
Haters are confused admirers who can’t understand why everybody else likes you
Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.
Don’t listen to the malicious comments of those friends who, never taking any risks themselves, can only see other people’s failures.
Don’t think about what you’ve left behind” The alchemist said to the boy as they began to ride across the sands of the desert. “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.
Really important meetings are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other.
Generally speaking, these meetings occur when we reach a limit when we need to die and be reborn emotionally. These meetings are waiting for us, but more often than not, we avoid them happening. If we are desperate, though, if we have nothing to lose, or if we are full of enthusiasm for life, then the unknown reveals itself, and our universe changes direction.
But how will I know who my Soulmate is?” Brida felt that this was one of the most important questions she had ever asked in her life.
By taking risks’ she said to Brida. ‘ By risking failure, disappointment, disillusion, but never ceasing in your search for Love. As long as you keep looking, you will triumph in the end.
At every moment of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss.
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. God chose you to be different. Why are you disappointing God with this kind of attitude?
People give flowers as presents because flowers contain the true meaning of love. Anyone who tries to possess a flower will have to watch its beauty fading. But if you simply look at a flower in the field, you’ll keep it forever.
That is what the forest taught me. That you will never be mine, and that is why I will never lose you.
You have two choices, to control your mind or to let your mind control you.
All my life, I thought of love as some kind of voluntary enslavement. Well, that’s a lie: freedom only exists when love is present. The person who gives him or herself wholly, the person who feels freest, is the person who loves most wholeheartedly.
If you love someone, you must be prepared to set them free.
And, when you can’t go back, you have to worry only about the best way of moving forward.
Haven’t you learned anything, not even with the approach of death? Stop thinking all the time that you’re in the way, that you’re bothering the person next to you. If people don’t like it, they can complain. And if they don’t have the courage to complain, that’s their problem
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 the 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.
We can never judge the lives of others because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation.
All you have to do is to pay attention; lessons always arrive when you are ready, and if you can read the signs, you will learn everything you need to know in order to take the next step
To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only obligation.
Forgive but do not forget, or you will be hurt again. Forgiving changes the perspectives. Forgetting loses the lesson.
Love is not a habit, a commitment, or a debt. It isn’t what romantic songs tell us it is – love simply is.
If one day I could get out of here, I would allow myself to be crazy. Everyone is indeed crazy, but the craziest are the ones who don’t know they’re crazy; they just keep repeating what others tell them to.
When you’re in love, you’re capable of learning everything and knowing things you had never dared even to think because love is the key to an understanding of all the mysteries.
The Top Paulo Coelho Books You Should Read
Paulo Coelho’s life might be interesting enough to write about. During his teen years, his parents sent him to a mental hospital because they thought his rebellious behavior was a sign that he was crazy. It was because of this that he had to go through the horrible electroshock therapy. Coelho stopped going to law school when he was in his twenties so he could travel around South America. He later became a journalist. After a trip to Santiago de Compostela that changed his life, he decided to follow his longtime dream of becoming a writer. Here are some of his most famous books.
The Alchemist would have you believe that it is a psychological story. Paulo Coelho tells the tale of a Spanish shepherd who, while traveling with his Andalusian people in Egypt, forges his own unique legend. The narrative advances the “philosophy” that learning to listen is the first step toward discovering oneself.
But instead of listening to us, pay attention to the alchemist: “Alchemy is the projection of all spiritual concepts into the material world. Including both laboratory work and the inner, personal chemistry, whose laboratory is our very life. The world changes and everything we touch becomes philosophical gold if we are true to what I refer to as the “Personal Legend.”
The Winner Stands Alone (2008)
What is the cost of achievement? The cult of luxury and success has blinded us to the truths that are murmured in our hearts, and Paulo Coelho offers us a mirror of our own society in this book. We meet successful individuals from the worlds of high fashion and film in Cannes, including a Russian millionaire, a well-known Middle Eastern stylist, the actress Gabriela, a determined detective, and the model Jasmine. Their life goals are fame, money, and power, and they will stop at nothing to get them.
The Devil and Miss Prym revisit the eternal struggle between good and evil. In order to illustrate this parable, Coelho has changed the Garden of Eden into a sleepy mountain village and the Fruit of Knowledge into gold bullion. Chantal Prym, a stunning young bartender, is chosen by the seductive serpent to act as his intermediary. The serpent is an elegant traveler and talker. In this world of shadows, where death is not confined to cemeteries but is still inextricably linked to life, Coelho dissects and manipulates his characters like puppets. Is man good or bad then? And does God even care about what happens to them? In a little more than 200 pages, the solution is contained.
The curious young Irishwoman Brida has always been drawn to magic, but she yearns for more knowledge. In the course of her quest, she encounters wise individuals who help her learn about the spiritual realm. A magician demonstrates how to dance to the beat of the world and call upon the moon, while a forest-dwelling mage instructs her on how to face her fears and trust in the goodness of the universe.
Then Brida departs to fulfill her destiny. Will she be able to abandon everything to become a witch? Paulo Coelho’s readers will recognize many of the themes from this charming book as the author skillfully blends love, passion, mystery, and spirituality into the story.
The Witch of Portobello (2006)
Athena, the adopted daughter of a wealthy Lebanese family, moved to London when their nation entered a war she had foreseen. She meets a man at school with whom she falls in love and becomes pregnant. Despite overcoming obstacles, the young couple marries against the wishes of their families, but their relationship does not last.
After becoming a mother, Athena is unable to stop thinking about the woman who gave birth to her and sets out to find her in order to learn how she could have abandoned her child. Her and her loved ones’ lives will change as a result of what she learns on the trip.
The Zahir (2005)
When his wife vanishes without a trace, a well-known author decides to throw away all of his guiding principles. He travels across the steppe and the desert on a journey that will take him from Paris to Central Asia in search of something that will give his life a deeper meaning. In order to evoke themes of love, the journey toward self-knowledge, and the origins of belief, Paulo Coelho revisits old myths and far-off traditions. In search of security, love, and spirituality, he talks about freedom and solitude while pondering the course of humankind.
Lessons To Learn From Paulo Coelho
Fernando Morais wrote Paulo Coelho’s authorized biography, “The Warrior’s Life,” which I read to find out more about him. The stories from his childhood were the most interesting parts of the book. They were nothing like what I thought they would be. They gave me ideas and made me think about my life.
Read on to find out the lessons about life you can learn from Paulo Coelho’s childhood. I’m telling you, it’s worth it.
Use Your Strengths To Compensate For Weaknesses
Paulo was weak on the outside. His biography says that he was “very thin, weak, and short.” He was called Pele, which means “skin” in Portuguese. It was only given to kids who were always picked on by their peers.
Paulo had trouble getting the respect of his peers because of how weak he was. But he found out that, even though he was weak, he had earned their respect. If you think you have a weakness, you don’t have to necessarily get rid of it. Some weaknesses are hard to get rid of, especially physical ones. Finding your strengths and working on them until you are at least above average would be a better way.
Or even better: Do so well that they can’t ignore you.
Rejection Is Normal, What You Choose To Do With It Is What Matters
Paulo thought he was a good person. He thought he was a good poet, and he didn’t think his poems were right for small magazines. So, he sent his poems to a column in a newspaper called Correio da Manha called “Escritores e Livros.” This is a well-known literary column. It hurts to be turned down. Some people say you shouldn’t take rejection personally, but to be honest, I don’t think that helps. We value ourselves and the things we make, so when we are turned down, it makes our minds feel strange
Self-belief and self-doubt are two thoughts that are at odds with each other. They fight to see who will stay and rule the kingdoms inside our heads. When we have two different ideas, we need something to help us figure out what to do next. Most of the time, the bad side will win the war if you don’t know what to do or what to believe.
In Paulo’s case, his self-belief won because he was obsessed with something.
Be Fixated On Your Goal
Paulo was fixated on a future in which he is a well-known author. It was ironic that the fruits of his obsession did not appear until his old age. This is because he constantly experimented with new forms of creative expression, including but not limited to acting, directing, writing about the occult, and lyric writing. He had some initial successes, but he always refocused on his ultimate goal of becoming a well-known author. That fixation shaped him into who he is now.
Your ‘horrible’ past doesn’t Control Your Future
When I read about Paulo’s past, one word immediately came to mind: horrible. Paulo didn’t do well in school, almost killed a boy while driving, had to stay in a psychiatric clinic because his problems were getting worse, used drugs were taken by a secret group, and turned to Satanism.
Even more, happened, but you get the point. When I looked at his past, I found it funny how different he was from his future self. It shows that a person’s past is not a good way to predict his future, since he can change it if he wants to.
Conclusion
Most of us have trouble because we worry about things we can’t change. Our past does have an effect on our future, but we don’t want that effect to be too big and happen on its own. We shouldn’t do that. We shouldn’t let the past tell us what will happen in the future. We must pay attention to the here and now and take charge of our future.
Why?
We’re the seer.
Let’s Conclude this in the words of Paulo Coehlo himself:
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
