Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Paulo Coelho

Brazilian Lyricist and Novelist

"Life is a manifestation of love, and a warrior must always be more focused on promoting peace than on provoking war."

"In order to learn, you must be humble."

"No heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams."

"In life, each person can take one of two attitudes: to build or to plant. The builders might take years over their tasks, but one day, they finish what they’re doing. Then they find they’re hemmed in by their own walls. Life losses its meaning when the building stops... Then there are those who plant. They endure storms and many vicissitudes of the seasons, and they rarely rest. But unlike a building, a garden never stops growing. And while it requires the gardener’s constant attention, it also allows life for the gardener to be a great adventure."

"You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen"

"Sometimes we set off down a path simple because we don’t believe in it."

"People had been trying to understand the universe through love ever since the beginning of time."

"The more you understand yourself, the more you will understand the world."

"Remember, the first road to God is prayer, the second is joy."

"The soil needs the seed, and the seed needs the soil. The one only has meaning with the other. It is the same thing with human beings. When male knowledge joins with female transformation, then the great magical union is created, and its name is Wisdom. Wisdom means both to know and to transform."

"What we see is not always what exists."

"The whole of man’s life on the face of Earth can be summed up by that search for his Soul Mate. He may pretend to be running after wisdom, money, or power, but none of that matter. Whatever he achieves will be incomplete if he fails to find his Soul Mate."

"Above all though we are responsible for rein-countering at least once in every incarnation the soul mate who sure to cross our path. Even if it is only for a matter of moments, because those moments bring with them a love so intense that it justifies the rest of our days... We can also allow our soul mate to pass us by, without accepting him or her or even noticing. Then we will need another incarnation in order to find that soul mate and because of our selfishness, we will be condemned to the worst torture human kind ever invented for itself, loneliness. "

"Free again, but it's just a feeling; freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose - and commit yourself to what is best for you… Freedom continues to be the thing I prize most in the world. Of course, this has led me to drink wines I did not like, to do things I should not have done and which I will not do again; it has left scars on my body and on my soul, it has meant hurting certain people, although I have since asked their forgiveness, when I realized that I could do absolutely anything except force another person to follow me in my madness, in my lust for life. I don’t regret the painful times; I bear my scars like medals. I know that freedom has a high price, as high as that of slavery; the only difference is that you pay with pleasure and a smile, even when that smile is dimmed by tears… Freedom has a high price, as high as that of slavery; the only difference is that you pay with pleasure and a smile, even when that smile is dimmed with tears… Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose - and commit myself to - what is best for me… Absolute freedom does not exist: there is only the freedom to choose something from that moment onwards to feel bound by its own decision. "

"A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires… A teacher 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… A disciple... can never imitate his guide's steps. You have your own way of living your life, of dealing with problems, and of winning. Teaching is only demonstrating that it is possible. Learning is making it possible for yourself. "

"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… All life battles teach us something, even those we lose… All my life, I thought of love as some kind of voluntary enslavement. Well, that's a lie: freedom only exists when love is present. The person who gives him or herself wholly, the person who feels freest, is the person who loves most wholeheartedly… ‘Yes, you have been through all this before,’ replies his heart. ‘But you have never been beyond it… All people know exactly how we should live our lives and never have any idea how to live their own lives… Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle."

"All religions lead to the same God, and all deserve the same respect. Anyone who chooses a religion is also choosing a collective way for worshipping and sharing the mysteries. Nevertheless, that person is the only one responsible for his or her actions along the way and has no right to shift responsibility for any personal decisions on to that religion… Although I have the colors, only the Lord can mix them with such harmony… A prayer couched in the words of the soul is far more powerful than any ritual."

"And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one's dreams would have no meaning. "

"All roads lead to the same place, choose your way to the end and moved away. Do not try to go in both ways at the same time… All things are manifestations of one thing only… All you have to do is contemplate a simple grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation. Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World, and it will one day return there… All you have to do is to pay attention; lessons always arrive when you are ready, and if you can read the signs, you will learn everything you need to know in order to take the next step. "

"An awareness of death encourages us to live more intensely… And one has to understand that being brave is not the absence of fear but rather the strength to keep on going forward despite the fear. Death frees from the fear of dying… Death is our constant companion, and it is death that gives each person's life its true meaning. "

"Although its purpose is to understand love, and although I suffer when I think of those who have given heart to send, but I still must admit that the vibrations caused his heart failed awaken the body, and those who stir up the body again failed to make your heart vibrate… Although my goal is to understand what love is, and although suffering because of the men who gave of his heart, found that those who touched my soul could not awaken my body, and those who touched my body, not managed to reach my soul… ALWAYS chose the road less taken… Always make plans for the future, and always be surprised by reality. "

"And the best way to know who we are is often to find out how others see us… And the person who loves wholeheartedly feels free… And the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that's where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are… And there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggle for your dreams than to be defeated without ever even knowing what you're fighting for. "

"At that moment it seemed to him that time stood still and the soul of the world surged within him. When he looked into her dark eyes and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and silence, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke. The language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart. It was love. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. Something that exerted the same force whenever two pairs of eyes met, as had theirs here at the well. She smiled, and that was certainly an omen. The omen he had been awaiting without even knowing he was for all his life. The omen he sought to find in his sheep and in his books. In the crystals and in the silence of the desert… It was the pure language of the world. It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life. And that, with no need for words she recognized the same thing. He was more certain of it, than of anything in the world. He had been told by his parents and grandparents that he must fall in love and really know a person before becoming committed. But maybe people who felt that way never learned the universal language. Because when you know that language, it’s easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you. Whether it’s in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love and makes a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one's dreams would have no meaning. "

"Anyone who loves in the expectation of being loved in return is wasting their time… Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally comes to realize that nothing really belongs to them… Because I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present… Because in real life, love needs to be possible. Even though there is no immediate payback, love survives only when there is hope, however distant, that is to conquer your loved one. The rest is fantasy. "

"At times, when loneliness seems to crush all beauty, the only way to resist is to remain open… Avoiding problems you need to face is avoiding the life you need to live… Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience… Be crazy! But learn how to be crazy without being the center of attention. Be brave enough to live different… Be creative. Remember that we only learnt how to fly when we stopped imitating birds… Be like the fountain that overflows, not like the cistern that merely contains. "

"But in the end all religions point to the same light. In between the light and us, sometimes there are too many rules. The light is here and there are no rules to follow this light… But it's not important what we think, or what we do or what we believe in: each of us will die one day. Better to do as the old Yaqui Indians did: regard death as an advisor. Always ask: 'Since I'm going to die, what should I be doing now?' "

"Borges said there are only four stories to tell: a love story between two people, a love story between three people, the struggle for power and the voyage. All of us writers rewrite these same stories ad infinitum… Behind the mask of ice that people wear, there beats a heart of fire… Being human means having doubts and yet still continuing on your path… Because there are no ends, there are only means… But before I die, I want to fight for life… But choose your way and follow it to the end. "

"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. "

"But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for… But we must never forget that spiritual experience is above all a practical experience of love and in love there are no rules. We try to be guided by a manual, check the heart, have a behavioral strategy ... But that is nonsense. Who decides is the heart, and what he decides is what counts. We've all experienced it in life. Everyone, at some point, we have said in tears: I am suffering for a love that is not worth the pain. We suffer because we found that most of what we receive. We suffer because our love is not recognized. We suffer because we fail to enforce our rules. Unexpectedly suffer, because love is the seed of our growth. The more we love, the closer we are spiritual experience. The truly enlightened, with souls lit by Love, overcame all the prejudices of the time… 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. "

"Certain people, in their eagerness to construct a world no external threat can penetrate build exaggeratedly high defense against the outside world, against new people, new places, different experiences and leave their own world stripped bare. It is there that bitterness begins irrevocable work… Close cycles. Not because of pride or arrogance, but because that no longer fits your life… Close some doors today. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because they lead you nowhere."

"Collective madness is called sanity… ‎Comparing is impoverishing our own experience. There is meaning to our suffering, if we rise above it… Cry if you need to, it's good to cry out all your tears, because only then you will be able to smile again… Deal with the pitfalls of life the same way that it deals with the pitfalls of the road instead of the curse the place where it is located. First try to know the cause of your falling? "

"Decisions are only the beginning of something. When a person takes a decision to dive into what actually holds in the current sweeping around the point did not expect at all even in the dream of the moment decision was taken. "

"Do not leave yourself to despair; it stands between you and the dialogue with your heart. Do not try to explain feelings. Live everything intensely and treasure what you feel as a gift from God… Do not try to walk in all the roads at the same time! Don’t allow your wounds to transform you into someone you are not. Don’t be afraid. The only way to avoid that suffering is to refuse love. Don’t be intimidated by other people’s opinions. Only mediocrity is sure of itself, so take risks and do what you really want to do… Don’t bother trying to explain your emotions. Live everything as intensely as you can and keep whatever you felt as a gift from God. The best way to destroy the bridge between the visible and invisible is by trying to explain your emotions. "

"Do not get used to it because it is easy to become a habit, it is a powerful drug. It is in the everyday life of us, in the suffering that we try to cover it, the sacrifices we make, blaming love for the breakup of their dreams. The pain was terrible when it displays its true face, but it temptation, appealing as it is disguised as a sacrifice or self-denial or cowardice. However, the more denial, as we found a way to exist with it, with the courtship of it and turn it into a part of our lives. I do not believe it. No one wants to suffer at all. If I think I could live without pain, that would be a big step, but do not imagine that others will understand me. Yes, the truth is that no one wants to suffer, even those who are still looking for pain and sacrifice there, but they feel they are reasonable, clearly there, and they are receiving the respect of human so, husbands, neighbors, and even God. Now we do not think about it anymore; everything you need to know is how to control this world spinning, not a journey in search of pleasure, but forget their sacrifice for all, that's important. There must a soldier participating in war is to kill the enemy or not? No, he left to sacrifice for the fatherland. Having a wife wants her husband to find himself not happy how? No, she wants her husband saw how sincere she endured as to how to make him happy. There must be a husband to do because they think he will find the fully meet individual needs in the workplace? No, he's brought the sweat and tears of the fine in exchange for peace to the family. And so life there are boys abandon their dreams to please their parents, parents give their lives for their children; pain and suffering are used to justify a bring only joy: love. "

"Don’t expect to get anything back, don’t expect recognition for your efforts, don’t expect your genius to be discovered or your love to be understood. Act because you need to act… Don’t forget that everything you deal with is only one thing and nothing else... above all don’t forget to follow your destiny through to its conclusion… Don't allow your mind to tell your heart what to do. The mind gives up easily. "

"Don't be like those people who believe in positive thinking and tell themselves that they're loved and strong and capable. You don't need to do that because you know it already. And when you doubt it — which happens, I think, quite often at this stage of evolution — do as I suggested. Instead of trying to prove that you're better than you think, just laugh. Laugh at your worries and insecurities. View your anxieties with humor. It will be difficult at first, but you'll gradually get used to it. Now go back and meet all those people who think you know everything. Convince yourself that they're right, because we all know everything; it's merely a question of believing… Don't explain. Your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe you… Don't think about what you'll tell people afterward. The time is here and now. Make the most of it… Don't waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear."

"Don't fear the light within. May it ignite the Sacred Flame in your soul… Don't give in to your fears. If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart… Don't listen to the malicious comments of those friends who, never taking any risks themselves, can only see other people's failures… Don't live every day as if it were your last. Live every day as if it were your first… Don't place your dreams in the hands of those whom can destroy them. "

"Empty your mind, stop thinking about anything, simply be… Enjoy the questions and forget the answers… Even if you do not find the answer, it is sufficient that someone else knows the answer, and enough to find this person, and fall asleep in his arms like a child, is enough to know that this person is stronger than you, it will take to protect you from all the dangers and evils."

"Every blessing ignored becomes a curse… Every day the Lord gives us - together with the sun - a moment when it is possible to change all that makes us unhappy. Every day we try to deceive ourselves that we recognize this moment, so it does not exist, that is identical today as yesterday and tomorrow will be the same. But the one who pays attention to that last day, he discovers a magical moment. It can be hidden at the time the doors unlock in the morning, in that brief silence that suddenly occurs after lunch, in a thousand and one things that look the same. This moment exists - a moment when we all dread outright star power and allow us to do miracles. Happiness is sometimes a blessing, but most often winning. The magical moment that occurs every day helps us to change, to lead us to engage in a search of their dreams… Every day the sun shines on a new world, full of what we call the monotony of the new opportunities, we do not know see the difference that distinguishes one day from its predecessor… Every second of the search is an encounter with God. When I have been truly searching for my treasure, every day has been luminous... I've 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."

"Dream and love are just words - until you decide to experience them… Dreaming is very pleasant as long as you are not forced to put your dreams into practice. That way, we avoid all the risks, frustrations and difficulties, and when we are old, we can always blame other people - preferably our parents, our spouses or our children - for our failure to realize our dreams… Dreams are the language of God… Dreams nourish the soul just as food nourishes the body. The pleasure of the search and of adventure feeds our dreams… Hurry up: your dreams are waiting for you, but they will not wait forever."

"Every moment in life is an act of faith… Every moment of searching is a moment of encounter… Esther, however, was the only woman who understood one very simple thing: in order to be able to find her, I first had to find myself… Even if it is only for a matter of moments, because those moments bring with them a Love so intense that it justifies the rest of our days… Even if loving meant leaving, or solitude, or sorrow, love was worth every penny of its price. "

"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 ways of behaving, and people never stop to wonder why they should behave like that. They just accept it the way typists accepted the fact that the QWERTY keyboard was the best possible one. Have you ever met anyone is your entire life who asked why the hands of a clock should go in one particular direction and not the other?... Each of us carries within it something unknown. But, when it floats to the surface, be capable of miracles... Each of us is unique, has special qualities, and his instincts, and the kinds of pleasure to enjoy, and a desire to run adventures. Is that society imposes on us always in the way of collective behavior, does not stop people asking them to behave in this way. "

"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 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. "

"Every Warrior of the Light has failed in his spiritual duties. Every Warrior of the Light has felt afraid of going into battle… Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved. Every Warrior of the Light has said ‘yes’ when he wanted to say ‘no.’ Every Warrior of the Light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons. Every Warrior of the Light has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light. Every Warrior of the Light has trodden a path that was not his. Every Warrior of the Light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone. "

"Everything said to myself that I was about to have a wrong decision, but to suffer from mistakes is just part of life. The world wants something from you? Do not want to risk it again and returned to where they have gone by I do not have the courage to say yes to it? I made a mistake when his first eleven years old, when her son I can ask to see him not borrow a pencil, from then on, I realized that sometimes you do not have a second chance and it is better to accept the gift that this world gift . Of course it's risky, but risk is greater risk that their bus was sitting on the forty-eight hours to get here might have an accident? If I must be honest with someone or something, you have to do, and first, to be honest with yourself already. If you are looking for a true love, then you must first remove the trivial love from people you have. What little experience I have taught her is that no one owns anything at all, that everything is an illusion-and illusion that the physical affects as well as the soul of all things so. Anyone who has lost something that they think it is theirs forever (as it has frequently happened to me last time), finally realizes that nothing really belongs to them all. And if nothing belongs to me at all, then it is useless to waste time to take care of things is not his; best to live as if today is the first (or also may be the last day) of life. "

"Everyone knows how to love, because we are all born with that gift. Some people have a natural talent for it but the majority of us have to re-learn, to remember how to love, and everyone, without exception, needs to burn on the bonfire of past emotions, to relieve certain joys and griefs, certain ups and downs, until they can see the connecting thread that exists behind each new encounter; because there is a connecting thread. "

"Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own… Everyone when they are young knows what their destiny is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible… Everything depends on which path you take… Everything in life has its price… Everyone's looking for the perfect teacher, but although their teachings might be divine, teachers are all too human, and that's something people find all too hard to accept. Don't confuse the teacher with the lesson, the ritual with the ecstasy, the transmitter of the symbol with the symbol itself. The Tradition is linked to our encounter with the forces of life and not with the people who bring this about. But we are weak: we ask the Mother to send us guides, and all she sends are signs to the road we need to follow… Everything has changed; it's just that we can't see it… Everything on earth is being continuously transformed, because the earth is alive... and it has a soul. We are part of that soul, so we rarely recognize that it is working for us.... we continue to change as change is the nature of man. No one is just this way. That is who they are today - it will not be who they are tomorrow."

"Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time… Everything which is done in the present, affects the future by consequence, and the past by redemption… Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey... Everything, absolutely everything on this earth makes sense, and even the smallest things are worthy of our consideration. "

"I am afraid of committing myself she thought to herself she wanted to follow all possible paths and ended up following none… I am afraid of death, but what I fear more than death, is to waste my life in vain, and called love because it contains things beyond our understanding, it sheds a light of a particular kind, but what scares me is what this places the light from the shadows… Fear lasts only until the point at which it is the occurrence of the outlawed, then the fear is losing its meaning, and left us only hope that we have taken the right decision."

"Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn't have the courage to say yes to life? … Everyone is indeed crazy but the craziest are those who don't know they're crazy; they just keep repeating what others tell them to."