Paulo Coelho is an author known for writing books which just makes you lost in thoughts and think of what is written. Here I am just exploring some of the best lines from Paulo Coelho’s best-selling book, the Alchemist. Basically, the Alchemist was a story about a shepherd who wanted more out of his life. He was a guy who always looked at the bright side of things and never deterred from what he wanted. There were times when he doubted what was happening with him and he doubted the decisions he had made in life, but in the end, he realized that life is just a patient teacher. It wants us to experience and learn things, not just know about stuff.
1. “When I had my sheep, I was happy, and I made those around me happy. People saw me coming and welcomed me, he thought. But now I’m sad and alone. I’m going to become bitter and distrustful of people because one person betrayed me. I am going to hate those who have found their treasure because I never found mine. And I’m going to hold on to what little I have because I’m too insignificant to conquer the world.”
Here I think the thought to be conveyed is that no matter how a person is when he goes through a bad situation, at first it is hard for him to accept the fact that he was responsible for the consequence in some way or other. The other thing is that the very true quality of human nature is explained here that even if we are betrayed by just a single person, it becomes hard for us to trust anyone else. And when we are betrayed we stop taking risks, stay in our comfort zone and sometimes even let go of our dreams.
2. “I couldn’t have found God in the seminary, he thought, as he looked at the sunrise.”
Now I myself am not a big believer in the Almighty, but this quote appeals to me. First of all, we should know what seminary means a place where priests gather to learn. This quote occurs when the shepherd is out on his journey and is standing on a cliff watching over a beautiful city while the sun is setting down over the ocean creating a mesmerizing and powerful impact on his mind. At such a time, anyone be it a believer or an atheist bows down to the thought that someone or something superior exists who has created the Universe and left his impact all over which cannot be found in places of worship.
3. “It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting, he thought.”
I do not need to explore this thought at all. Hope and looking forward to something gives our lives meaning and thus without that possibility of that thing coming true, there is nothing left.
4. “[thinking about the girl he loves] He recognized that he was feeling something he had never experienced before: the desire to live in one place forever.”
Now, this is something of my mind. Not many people have the honor of having this feeling of just seeing a person and in that slight moment, imagining their entire life. Every person in this world is a nomad — they are either running from something or running towards something. But a nomad always settles near land where he deems that he’ll be safe and will be able to provide for himself. The same thing happens here — a person just knows that the time to settle down has come when he meets his/her soulmate.
5. “When someone sees the same people every day, as it 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 live their lives but none about his or her own.”
This is quite a long excerpt but if someone asks me to summarize it, I would just say that before finding faults in others or criticizing others for their mistakes and flaws, first of all, look inside your own self and think that is it the other person who needs to change or is it just me.
6. “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.”
This one of my most favorite lines ever from any book or any movie. One of the reasons I do not believe that God or Fate decides our lives or that what is supposed to happen will happen. NO NO NO! Fate never takes control of our lives. I believe it just puts all kinds of choices in front of us, and the path we are supposed to embark upon is decided by the action we take. We can control our lives, we just should not be afraid to take actions and just do what we think would lead us to our goals and not just let things work out in their own way. That way, there is almost a minuscule chance that you get what you want.
7. “If you start out by promising what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work toward getting it.”
I did not understand this quote for the very first time. But when I read it again and again and did a little thinking about it then I concluded what the author wanted to say. Basically, it states a very simple yet powerful thought which is applicable in our personal as well as work life. It says that we should not promise what we cannot deliver, because in the long run that will destroy the relation and trust, and as they say trust is the most expensive thing in the world. Once gone, it is impossible to recover it.
8. “Here I am, between my flock and my treasure, the boy thought. He had to choose between something he had become accustomed to and something he wanted to have.”
This is a choice every one of us faces in our lives one time or more. Humans have a basic instinct to form a routine and then sticking to it. We are not the species who enjoy stepping out of the comfort zone. We like to play safe. But we humans also have the instinct to always want something more, something extra than what we already have. And there is a big gap between both the desires and that is a risk. It may happen that in trying to get what we desire, we end up losing what we already have but if we just stick to the safe side, we will always keep on thinking and regretting that maybe if I had taken that risk I would be on the top today. Hence it is for us to decide what do we want.
9. “The boy felt jealous of the freedom of the wind and saw that he could have the same freedom. There was nothing to hold him back except himself.”
Nothing else except the truth, isn’t it? Whenever we want something in our life, it may be knowledge or love or money or something more, we curse that there are so many obstacles in the path to that destination. But the truth is there is only one obstacle and that is our own self. If we decide to achieve something and just be willful then automatically we will have the strength to face any other obstacles in the path.
10. “I’m like everyone else — I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does.”
This applies to everyone. And the thing is some people take advantage of this fact to sell their business. First of all, what does it mean? It talks about a person’s perspective — how it changes and how it is shaped according to the societal view. In current times, most of the people’s perspective is what society’s take is on things. We can hear statements like “what will people say” several times in our households. Therefore, we forget to see the world for what it is. If there was God, then he did not create races or castes. He just wanted everyone to stay together in peace and harmony. Coming on to the statement I said before about people taking advantage — I was talking about politicians and media. Both of them say what people want to hear, not what the actual scenario is. They just appeal to the majority and not reveal what is actually occurring.
11. “You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit, it’s because it wasn’t true love… the love that speaks the Language of the World.”
This quote occurs when the shepherd has to again go away from a girl he has fallen in love with and the thing is that he does not know when he will return. On one side is his destiny and on the other, the girl he loves. The shepherd starts questioning the fates and destiny, that how cruel they are for separating two people in love. Simply the thing is that if your partner supports you and encourages you to be a better version of yourself and does not ask you to sacrifice yourself unnecessarily then that person is your true love. If your partner asks you to leave something which is going to benefit you just for the reason that he or she wants you then that person is not your soulmate.
12. “One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”
13. “Treason is a blow that comes unexpectedly. If you know your heart well, it will never be able to do that to you. Because you’ll know its dreams and wishes, and will know how to deal with them. You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say. That way, you’ll never have to fear an unexpected blow.”
If we think about it, what happens to us in our lives is always dependent on our choices, our actions, and our decisions. Somewhere inside of us, we know what is going to happen if we take a particular step. But still, we are taken by surprise when something bad or something disappointing happens to us. Why should that happen when we knew what would happen when we took that decision? That is just human nature. We always hope, we always want to look for the better side of things. Instead, if we just prepare our mind and our heart of the consequences of our decision based on rationality, experience, practicality, and realism then we would not be taken aback by any dire outcomes and we could be even prepared with some kind of solution also.
14. “Even though I complain sometimes,” the heart said, “it’s because I’m the heart of the person, and people’s hearts are that way. People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly.”
Whenever we are sitting alone on the chair with our heads up and just lost in thoughts, whether we like it or not our heart ventures out to thoughts of the love we lost, or to the thoughts of the person we are missing, or to some wrong decision we made which could’ve turned out better. Whatever we want to say, we are scared from the inside, always doubting ourselves whether we deserve what we have or not. Our hearts have a fear of suffering but in my opinion, the fear is worse than the suffering itself. Fear keeps on eating you from the inside but if face the suffering head-on it will just vanish after giving us some hard time. And the best swords are forged in the hottest of the furnaces, which means that there is no gain without a little suffering.
15. “Every second of the search is an encounter with God. When I have been truly searching for my treasure, I have discovered things along the way that I never would have seen had I not had the courage to try things that seemed impossible for a shepherd to achieve.”
This quote resonates with a saying which has been passed down from generation to generation — The journey is the destination. Here the shepherd is searching for a treasure and he was lucky enough to realize that even before he had reached the real treasure, he had gained so much. In the same way, every one of us is working our way towards something in our life but instead of just focusing on that single thing, we should also appreciate the little things we learn along the journey. We might just learn more from the journey than from the destination.
16. “Why don’t people’s hearts tell them to continue to follow their dreams?” the boy asked the alchemist. “Because that’s what makes a heart suffer the most, and hearts don’t like to suffer.”
I believe that this exchange basically speaks to the suffering one must go through by following a dream of the heart. Because of the pain that may come from following a dream, the heart begins to speak more quietly hoping that it will be ignored. In this way, there will be no suffering. We can assume that the alchemist is saying that there is a pain to be expected in trying to reach one’s dreams.
17. “Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.”
These are the parting words that the alchemist says to the shepherd at the end. The alchemist was trying to make the shepherd know that why did he have to endure so many trials if the Universe in the end wanted him to have the treasure. Everyone begins their journey with beginner’s luck where they succeed several times by chance. As the quest for life progresses the challenges keep on getting tougher. The alchemist’s statement implies that the important part of pursuing one’s Personal Legend consists not just in reaching the final goal, but also in learning through action. A person’s transformation cannot occur without a journey with obstacles and elements.
18. “When you possess great treasures within you and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.”
It is one of life’s simple lessons. People, in general, like to be ignorant and think of themselves above the person they are talking to. This creates a false sense of superiority, making people think that they know everything. Now the author gives an analogy here where great treasure means the knowledge we have within us. Now, when we try to share some knowledge which is unique and new with others, they choose not to believe as they have never heard about it before and for them, whatever they know is the truth. Now we can interpret this in 2 ways. Firstly, it may mean that the author wants us to be sharing and wants us to make people believe if there is something worth knowing about. Or the second interpretation is that there is no point in expediting energy to talk about things when we know that people are just going to ignore it because they can’t accept the fact they do not know that fact.
19. “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
Without a few obstacles, without a few failures, one does not reach the top. But everyone in this world is afraid of that very thing — the fear of failing. Some are afraid that what will people say when they fail, some are afraid of losing what they already have after failing, some are afraid of embracing the change that will come. Once you overcome that fear, you have achieved 50% of your dream.
20. “Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.”
If you think the world is full of angry and selfish people, then you will experience the world in this way. You’ll find all the ways to interpret the events you see and experience through this lens. However, if you believe the world is full of grateful and giving people, you’ll start to see more of this in the world. What you believe is what you perceive.
21. “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.”
Nothing stays the same, this can be a gift or a curse. Every day is a new day to make a positive change. Your future has nothing to do with what is past. Your future depends only on what we do right now and every moment going forward. Every mistake you made in the past you thought was the right move at the time. Just think of how much you’ve grown. You are wiser now, see what you can do.
22. “You’ve got to find the treasure so that everything you have learned along the way can make sense.”
This is for all those people who just say that the journey is everything, it doesn’t matter whether you reach the destination or not. Success is challenging for a reason. We are only given our dreams and what we need to succeed. Success cannot be given to us, it can only be earned. Otherwise, success would have no worth. Only those willing to work for success deserve it. Success itself is not the reward, it is the wisdom, self-mastery, and character development that come with it. So unless you reach the top, there is no point in the journey.
Now the entire book is full of such thoughts that intrigue the reader and opens our mind to thoughts we never focus on but I cannot discuss the entire book now. These are just the lines that inspired me but if you are a believer in God and Fate, there are several excerpts on that; if you are a believer in love, then there are quotes on that. The Alchemist has something for everyone. Hope you liked my thoughts!
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