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

"Graduates leave university and can't find a job. Old people reach retirement and have almost nothing to live on. Grown-ups have no time to dream, struggling from nine to five to support their families and pay for their children's education, always bumping up against the thing we all know as harsh reality."

"Happiness is contagious and will always manage to find a solution."

"Happiness is a blessing, but generally it is a conquest."

"Happiness is something that is multiplied when shared."

"Happiness is love. Love I?ve heard not bring happiness, it has not brought any time. On the contrary, a constant state of anxiety is love, is a battlefield; Does ourselves constantly wonder if I'm doing right that we ask is sleepless nights."

"Happiness is something that multiplies when it is divided."

"Haters are confused admirers who can?t understand why everybody else likes you."

"Hatred. Something almost as physical as walls, pianos, or nurses."

"Happiness sometimes justifies the gift - but mostly it is a victory in the fight."

"Happiness is sometimes a blessing, but generally it is a conquest. The magic moment of the day helps us change, makes us go for our dreams. We will suffer, we will have difficult times, we will face many disappointments ... but everything is temporary, and non-marking. And in the future we can look back with pride and faith. Poor is the man who is afraid of taking risks. Because that might not ever disappoint, nor have disappointments, and suffer like chasing a dream. But looking back, because I always look back-hear heart that says, What have you done with the miracles that God planted in your days? What did you do with the talents that you entrusted your Master? The buried at the bottom of a cave, because you were afraid of losing them. So this is your heritage: the certainty that you wasted your life. Poor who hears these words. Because then you believe in miracles, but the magical moments of your life will have already passed."

"Hatred. Something almost as physical as walls, pianos, or nurses. She could almost touch the destructive energy leaking out of her body. She allowed the feeling to emerge, regardless of whether it was good or bad; she was sick of self-control, of masks, of appropriate behavior. Veronika wanted to spend her remaining two or three days of life behaving as inappropriately as she could."

"Having the courage to take the steps we always wanted to take is the only way of showing that we trust in God."

"Have earned important things? because I tell myself that it has lost its meaning. I know this is not true. I know they are still important, and if I am shattered, I'll also have broken myself"

"Have pity on those who are fearful of taking up a pen, or a paintbrush, or an instrument, or a tool because they are afraid that someone has already done so better than they could?"

"He (Elijah): ?Love is dangerous?, said the angel too, and then what? and suddenly disappeared."

"He analyses every strategy and asks: what would I do if I had to fight myself? He thus discovered his weak points."

"He asked why people are sad. That?s simple, says the old man. They are the prisoners of their personal history. Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan. They never ask if that plan is theirs or if it was created by another person. They accumulate experiences, memories, things, other people?s ideas, and it is more than they can possibly cope with. And that is why they forget their dreams."

"He began to explain to me that vegetation, and especially mature trees, are able to transmit harmony when one rests one?s nerve centers against a tree trunk. For hours he discoursed on the physical, energetic, and spiritual properties of plants."

"He also said that this was not just a human gift, that everything on the face of the earth had a soul, whether mineral, vegetable, or animal - or even just a simple thought."

"He had suffered enough to take advantage of the scars in their favor."

"He felt the urge to go into the desert, to see if its silence held the answers to his questions."

"He felt that, just as he had conquered this place, he could conquer the world."

"He has done things that caused me to doubt His wisdom, but never His existence."

"He has learned that silence means the absolute balance of the body, spirit and soul. The man who preserves his unity will never be dominated by the storms of existence; he has the strength to overcome the difficulties and move forwards."

"He had to choose between something he had become accustomed to and something he wanted to have."

"He hadn't a cent in his pocket, but he had faith!"

"He knew that for money magic act: with money, do not be one of the lonely at all."

"He knew that any given thing on the face of the earth could reveal the history of all things. One could open a book to any page, or look at a person's hand; one could turn a card, or watch the flight of birds... whatever the thing observed, one could find a connection with his experience of the moment. Actually, it wasn't that those things, in themselves, revealed anything at all; it was just that people, looking at what was occurring around them, could find a means of penetration to the Soul of the World."

"He knew one of the women well, and had shared his universe with her. They had seen the same mountains, and the same trees, although each of them had seem them differently. She knew his weaknesses, his moments of hatred, of despair. Yet she was there at his side. They shared the same universe."

"He knows that the gazelle's power lies in its strong legs. The power of the seagull lies in the accuracy with which it can spear a fish. He has learned that the reason the tiger does not fear the hyena is because he is aware of his own strength."

"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 live. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. Something that exerted the same force whenever two pairs of eyes met."

"He might dance down the street on his way to work, gaze into the eyes of a complete stranger and speak of love at first sight, or defend an apparently absurd idea. Warriors of light allow themselves days like these. He is not afraid to weep over ancient sorrows or feel joy at new discoveries. When he feels that the moment has arrived, he drops everything and goes off on some long-dreamed-of adventure. When he realizes that he can do no more, he abandons the fight, but never blames himself for having committed a few unexpected acts of folly. A warrior does not spend his days trying to play the role that others have chosen for him."

"He never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dreamed of."

"He recalled that when the sun had risen that morning, he was on another continent, still a shepherd with sixty sheep, and looking forward to meeting with a girl. That morning he had known everything that was going to happen to him as he walked through the familiar fields. But now, as the sun began to set, he was in a different country, a stranger in a strange land, where he couldn?t even speak the language. He was no longer a shepherd, and he had nothing, not even the money to return and start everything over."

"He sat on a rock and wept. Since the day that saw the darkness has spread its bright spots of light, he succeeded only in bringing bad luck on others."

"He recognized that he was feeling something he had never experienced before: the desire to live in one place forever. With the girl with the raven hair his days would never be the same again."

"He should know that the great aim of every human being is to understand the meaning of total love. 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."

"He said all the happy man is the one who embraced God within him, and he can happiness be found in a grain of sand is simple in the desert, in the words of The Alchemist, because a grain of sand is the moment of the creation process, and that the universe has devoted millions and millions of years in created."

"He said we should concern ourselves only with today, because the lilies in the field toil not, neither do they spin, but arrayed in glory."

"He said something like that: In all languages in the world, there is the same proverb: ?What the eyes don?t see, the heart doesn?t grieve over.? Well, I say that there isn?t any ounce of truth in it. The further off they are, the closer to the heart are all those feelings that we try to repress and forget. If we?re far from exile, we want to store away every tiny memory of our roots. If we?re far from the person we love, everyone we pass in the street reminds us of them. At the end of the service, I went up to him and thanked him: I said I was a stranger in a strange land, and I thanked him for reminding me that what the eyes don?t see, the heart does grieve over. And my heart has grieved so much, that today I?m leaving."

"He tried to deal with the concept of love as distinct from possession, and couldn't separate them."

"He studied Latin, Spanish and theology. But as a child wanted to know the world and this was more important than knowing God and the sins of men."

"He understood that, contrary to what most people think, total power means total slavery."

"He told himself that he would have to start reading thicker books: they lasted longer, and made more comfortable pillows."

"He was excited and at the same time be varied: maybe the girl was already forgotten. That way they passed many pastors and selling wool."

"He was sure that it made no difference to her on which day he appeared: for her, every day was the same, and when each day is the same as the next, it's because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day the sun rises."

"He wept because God was unfair, and because this was the way God repaid those who believed in their dreams."

"He went on telling stories about his travels, and her bright, Moorish eyes went wide with fear and surprise. As the time passed, the boy found himself wishing that the day would never end, that her father would stay busy and keep him waiting for three days. He recognized that he was feeling something he had never experienced before: the desire to live in one place forever."

"He who knows the treasure he has: his days and hours of life, which can change everything which goes on around him."

"He who is used to traveling, know that it is always necessary to start someday."