Quotes from Paulo Coelho

We tend to seek captivity because we are used to seeing freedom as something that has neither frontiers nor responsibilities.

From the moment we are born, people tell us that the world is like this and like that, this way, that way. It is natural that - for a certain period of time - we end up believing what we are told. But we must soon push these ideas aside and discover our own way of living reality.

Judging oneself to be inferior to other people was one of the worst acts of pride because it was the most destructive way of being different.

Love is not to be found in someone else, but in ourselves; we simply awaken it. But in order to do that, we need the other person. The universe only makes sense when we have someone to share our feelings with.

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

Never save the best for later. You don't know what tomorrow holds.

It's what you do in the present that will redeem the past and thereby change the future.

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

We make a lot of detours, but we're always heading for the same destination

Ever since your goal found out that you were traveling toward it, it has been running to meet you

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.

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.

I am going to sit here in the river. If you go home to sleep, I will sleep in front of your house. And if you go away, I will follow you--until you tell me to go away. Then I'll leave. But I have to love you for the rest of my life..

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.

Life offers us thousands of opportunities for learning. Every man and every woman, in every day of our lives, always has a good opportunity to surrender to Love. Life is not a long vacation, but a constant learning process. And the most important lesson is learning to love.

When we love, we always strive to become better than we are.

By taking risks. 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.

Anyone who loves in the expectation of being loved in return is wasting their time.

The energy of hatred won't get you anywhere; but the energy of forgiveness, which reveals itself through love, will transform your life in a positive way.

Certain things in life simply have to be experienced -and never explained. Love is such a thing.

Love is not a habit, a commitment, or a debt. It isn't what romantic songs tell us it is, love simply is.

'Why do we have to listen to our hearts?' 'Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you'll find your treasure.' 'But my heart is agitated,' the boy said. '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.' 'Well, that's good. Your heart is alive. Keep listening to what it has to say.'

Why do we have to listen to our hearts? Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you'll find your treasure.

I think that when we look for love courageously, it reveals itself, and we wind up attracting even more love. If one person really wants us, everyone does. But if we're alone, we become even more alone. Life is strange.