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Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho Quotes

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Famous Paulo Coelho Quotes

“. I'll find other women. When I walk down the street, I'll keep seeing women who could be her. I'll suffer day and night, night and day. This could take weeks, months, possibly a year or more. Until one morning, I'll wake up and find I'm thinking about something else, and then I'll know the worst is over. My heart might be bruised, but it will recover, and become capable of seeing the 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.”

“A man spent hours watching a butterfly struggling to emerge from its cocoon. It managed to make a small hole, but its body was too large to get through it. After a long struggle, it appeared to be exhausted and remained absolutely still. The man decided to help the butterfly and, with a pair of scissors, he cut open the cocoon, thus releasing the butterfly. However, the butterfly’s body was very small and wrinkled and its wings were all crumpled. The man continued to watch, hoping that, at any moment, the butterfly would open its wings and fly away. Nothing happened; in fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its brief life dragging around its shrunken body and shrivelled wings, incapable of flight. What the man – out of kindness and his eagerness to help – had failed to understand was that the tight cocoon and the efforts that the butterfly had to make in order to squeeze out of that tiny hole were Nature’s way of training the butterfly and of strengthening its wings. Sometimes, a little extra effort is precisely what prepares us for the next obstacle to be faced. Anyone who refuses to make that effort, or gets the wrong sort of help, is left unprepared to fight the next battle and never manages to fly off to their destiny.”

“At some point, we have each said through our tears, "I'm suffering for a love that's not worth it." We suffer because we feel we are giving more than we receive. We suffer because we feel we are giving more than we receive. We suffer because our love is going unrecognized. We suffer because we are unable to impose our own rules. But ultimately there is no good reason for our suffering, for in every love lies the seed of our growth.”

“She wasn’t afraid of difficulties; what frightened her was being forced to choose one particular path. Choosing a path meant having to miss out on others. She had a whole life to live and she was always thinking that, in 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 dissappointment, she had never again given herself entirely. She feared pain, 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 in order not to see the bad things in life.”

“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.”

“Human beings are the only ones in nature who are aware that they will die. For that reason and only for that reason, I have a profound respect for the human race, and I believe that its future is going to be much better than its present. Even knowing that their days are numbered and that everything will end when they least expect it, people make of their lives a battle that is worthy of a being with eternal life. What people regard as vanity-leaving great works, having children, acting in such a way as to prevent one's name from being forgotten- I regard as the highest expression of human dignity.”

“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”

“Then the voice - which identified itself as the prince of this world, the only being who really knows what happens on Earth - began to show him the people around him on the beach. The wonderful father who was busy packing things up and helping his children put on some warm clothes and who would love to have an affair with his secretary, but was terrified on his wife's response. His wife who would like to work and have her independence, but who was terrified of her husband's response. The children who behave themselves because they were terrified of being punished. The girl who was reading a book all on her own beneath the sunshade, pretending she didn't care, but inside was terrified of spending the rest of her life alone. The boy running around with a tennis racuqet , terrified of having to live up to his parents' expectations. The waiter serving tropical drinks to the rich customers and terrified that he could be sacket at any moment. The young girl who wanted to be a dance, but who was studying law instead because she was terrified of what the neighbours might say. The old man who didn't smoke or drink and said he felt much better for it, when in truth it was the terror of death what whispered in his ears like the wind. The married couple who ran by, splashing through the surf, with a smile on their face but with a terror in their hearts telling them that they would soon be old, boring and useless. The man with the suntan who swept up in his launch in front of everybody and waved and smiled, but was terrified because he could lose all his money from one moment to the next. The hotel owner, watching the whole idyllic scene from his office, trying to keep everyone happy and cheerful, urging his accountants to ever greater vigilance, and terrified because he knew that however honest he was government officials would still find mistakes in his accounts if they wanted to. There was terror in each and every one of the people on that beautiful beach and on that breathtakingly beautiful evening. Terror of being alone, terror of the darkness filling their imaginations with devils, terror of doing anything not in the manuals of good behaviour, terror of God's punishing any mistake, terror of trying and failing, terror of succeeding and having to live with the envy of other people, terror of loving and being rejected, terror of asking for a rise in salary, of accepting an invitation, of going somewhere new, of not being able to speak a foreign language, of not making the right impression, of growing old, of dying, of being pointed out because of one's defects, of not being pointed out because of one's merits, of not being noticed either for one's defects of one's merits.”

“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.”

“...paradise is expensive, the gate is narrow. Whoever visits discovers that life is beautiful, that the sun can in fact be divided into individual rays, it's no longer that boring, round ball you can't even look at. The next day, you go back to work on a train full of people with empty looks, emptier than the looks of the people here. Everybody thinking about getting home, making dinner, turning on the television, escaping reality- man, reality is this white powder, not the television!”

“Tuhan, lindungilah keraguan-keraguan kami, sebab Keraguan pun sebentuk doa. Keraguan-lah yang membuat kami bertumbuh dan memaksa kami untuk tak takut melihat sekian banyak jawaban yang tersedia untuk satu pertanyaan. Kabulkanlah doa kami… Tuhan, lindungilah keputusan-keputusan kami, sebab membuat Keputusan pun sebentuk doa. Setelah bergulat dengan keraguan, beri kami keberanian untuk memilih antara satu jalan dengan jalan lainnya. Biarlah kiranya pilihan YA tetap YA dan pilihan TIDAK tetap TIDAK. Setelah kami memilih jalan kami, kiranya kami tidak pernah menoleh lagi atau membiarkan jiwa kami digerogoti penyesalan. Kabulkanlah doa kami… Tuhan, lindungilah tindakan-tindakan kami, sebab Tindakan pun sebentuk doa. Kiranya makanan kami sehari-hari menjadi buah dari segala yang terbaik dalam diri kami. Kiranya kami bisa berbagi walau sedikit saja dari Kasih yang kami terima, melalui karya dan perbuatan. Kabulkanlah doa kami… Tuhan, lindungilah impian-impian kami, sebab Bermimpi pun sebentuk doa. Kiranya usia maupun keadaan-keadaan tidak menghalangi kami untuk tetap mempertahankan nyala api harapan dan kegigihan yang suci itu di dalam hati kami. Kabulkanlah doa kami… Tuhan, berikanlah antusiasme kepada kami, sebab Antusiasme pun sebentuk doa. Antusiasme-lah yang memberitahu kami bahwa hasrat-hasrat kami penting dan layak diperjuangkan semaksimal mungkin. Antusiasme-lah yang mengukuhkan kepada kami bahwa segala sesuatu tidaklah mustahil asalkan kami sepenuhnya berkomitmen pada apa yang kami lakukan. Kabulkanlah doa kami… Tuhan, lindungilah kami, sebab Hidup ini adalah satu-satunya cara bagi kami untuk mengejawantahkan kuasa keajaibanMu. Kiranya bumi tetap mengolah benih menjadi gandum, kiranya kami bisa tetap mengubah gandum menjadi roti. Dan semua ini hanya dimungkinkan apabila kami memiliki Kasih; karenanya, janganlah kami ditinggalkan seorang diri. Biarlah selalu ada Engkau di sisi kami, dan ada orang-orang lain—laki-laki dan perempuan-perempuan—yang menyimpan keraguan-keraguan, yang bertindak dan bermimpi dan merasakan antusiasme, yang menjalani setiap hari dengan sepenuhnya membaktikannya kepada kemuliaanMu. Amin.”