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Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho Quotes

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“It's a book that says the same thing almost all the other books in the world say," continued the old man. "It describes people's inability to choose their own Personal Legends. And it ends up saying that everyone believes the world's greatest lie." "What's the world's greatest lie?" the boy asked, completely surprised. "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.”

“Een man stelde mijn vriend Jaime Cohen de volgende vraag: "Wat vindt u het grappigste aan de mens?" Jaime antwoordde: "Onze manier van denken. We denken voortdurend verkeerd om: hoe eerder we volwassen kunnen zijn hoe beter en vervolgens klagen we over onze verloren jeugd. Onze gezondheid offeren we op om aan geld te komen en hebben we dat dan geven we alles weer uit om weer gezond te worden. We zijn zo op de toekomst gericht dat we het heden verwaarlozen en hebben daardoor in het heden geen leven, maar in de toekomst ook niet. We leven alsof we nooit dood zullen gaan en sterven alsof we nooit hebben geleefd.”

“إذا شكوتُ قليلاً، فلأنني لست سوى قلب إنسان. وهكذا هي قلوب الناس، تخاف من تحقيق أحلامها الكبرى، لأنها تعتقد أنها لا تستحقّ بلوغها، أو أنها فعلاً لا تقدر على بلوغها. إننا نموت، نحن القلوب، خوفاً من حالات الحب الذي ولَّى إلى الأبد، ومن الأوقات التي كان يمكن أن تكون أوقاتاً رائعة، ومن تلك التي ليست كذلك، ومن الكنوز التي كان يمكن اكتشافها، ولكنها ظلّت، إلى الأبد، مدفونةً في الرمال، لأننا، متى حصل ذلك، نتألّم كثيراً من هول المعاناة التي تسبق النهاية.”

“For millions of years, man spoke only to what he could see. Suddenly, in just one decade, 'seeing' and 'speaking' have been separated. We think we're used to it, yet we don't realize the immense impact it's had on our reflexes. Our bodies are simply not used to it. Frankly, the result is that, when we talk on the telephone, we enter a state that is similar to certain magical trances; we can discover other things about ourselves.”

“لماذا لا أبحث عن السعادة و قد علّمني الجميع أن السعادة هي الهدف الوحيد الجدير بأن نصبو إليه؟”

“You are born, go to school, and attend university in search of a husband. You get married - even if he is the worse man in the world - just so that others can't say no one wants you. You have children, grow old, and spend the end of your days watching passersby from a chair on the sidewalk, pretending to know everything about life yet unable to silence the voice in your heart that says: "You could try something else.”

“It's what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their destiny is.At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny. It's a force that appears to be negative, but actually shows you how to realize your destiny. It prepares your spirit and your will, because there is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It's your mission on earth.”

“Because 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. You'll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now.”

“Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him. We, people's hearts, seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer want to go in search of them. We speak of them only to children. Later, we simply let life proceed, in its own direction, toward its own fate. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for them—the path to their destinies, and to happiness. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place. "So, we, their hearts, speak more and more softly. We never stop speaking out, but we begin to hope that our words won't be heard: we don't want people to suffer because they don't follow their hearts.”

“I have always believed that in the lives of individuals, just as in society at large, the profoundest changes take place within a very reduced time frame.When we least expected 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 ready yet.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.”

“আমাদের একেকজনের জীবনের এক একটা নির্দিষ্ট বিন্দুতে এসে আমাদের চারপাশে যা হচ্ছে তার উপর নিয়ন্ত্রণ হারিয়ে ফেলি। তখন জীবনের নিয়ন্ত্রণ নেয় ভাগ্য। এটাই দুনিয়ার সবচেয়ে বড় মিথ্যা ।”

“Dr Igor paused but he knew that Mari was following his reasoning. "So let's turn to your illness. Each human being is unique. Each with their own qualities, instincts, forms of pleasure, and desire for adventure. However, society always imposes on us a collective way of behaving. And people never stop to wonder why they should behave like that. They just accept it, the way typist accepted the fact that the qwerty keyboard is the best possible one. How you ever met anyone in your entire life who asked, why the hands of a clock should go in one particular direction, and not in the other?" "No" "If someone were to ask, the response they got would probably be, you are mad! If they persisted people would try to come up with a reason but they'd soon change the subject because there isn't a reason apart from the one I just given you. So, to go back to your question, what was it again?" "Am I cured?" "No, 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." "Is wanting to be different a serious illness?" "It is if you force yourself to be the same as everyone else. It causes neurosis, psychosis and paranoia. It's a distortion of nature, it goes against god's laws for in all the world's woods and forests, he did not create a single leaf the same as another".”