Quotes from Paulo Coelho

When night comes and no one is watching, I feel afraid of everything: life, death, love or the lack of it; the fact that all novelties quickly become habits; the feeling that I'm wasting the best years of my life in a pattern that will be repeated over and over until I die; and sheer panic at facing the unknown, however exciting and adventurous that might be.

It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think yours is the only path.

Fashion is merely a saying: I belong to your world. I'm wearing the same uniform as your army, so don't shoot.

I learned something recently: 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.

If the whole world is evil, then the tragedy that befell you is justified, she went on. That would make it easier for you to accept the deaths of your wife and daughters. But if good people do exist, then, however much you deny it, your life will be unbearable; because fate set a trap for you, and you know you didn't deserve it. It isn't the light you want to recover, it's the certainty that there is only darkness.

The true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it.

But time, as well as healing all wounds, taught me something strange too: that it's possible to love more than one person in a lifetime. I remarried. I'm very happy with my new wife, and I can't imagine living without her. This, however, doesn't mean that I have to renounce all my past experiences, as long as I'm careful not to compare my two lives. You can't measure love the way you can the length of a road or the height of a building.

Love is an act of faith in another person, not an act of surrender.

A Warrior knows that the ends do not justify the means. Because there are no ends, there are only means...

to die tomorrow was no worse than dying on any other day. Every day was there to be lived or to mark one's departure from this world.

We always know which is the best road to follow, but we follow only the road that we have become accustomed to.

Suffering comes from desire, not from pain.

But he was able to understand one thing: making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.

If you must say yes, say it with an open heart. If you must say no, say it without fear.

We have been moving along at such a fast pace that we no longer know what we are doing. Now we have to wait until our soul catches up with us.

Her silence was the blank space between the words.

Try to live with the same intensity as a child. He doesn't ask for explanations; he dives into each day as if it were a new adventure and, at night, sleeps tired and happy.

Learn to recognize omens, and follow them

I'm afraid that if my dream is realized, I'll have no reason to go on living.

Pain, loss and separation are inevitable on the path of love, and the only way of avoiding them is by deciding not to take that path at all. In order not to suffer, you have to renounce love.It was like putting out your own eyes in order not to see the bad things in life.

What kills a relationship between two people is precisely the lack of challenge, the feeling that nothing is new anymore. We need to continue to be a surprise for each other.

Whenever he saw the sea, or a fire, he fell silent, impressed by their elemental force.

You might have lost some major battles, but you survived and you're still here.

God is the same, even though He has a thousand names; it is up to us to select a name for Him.