I leave you the best phrases of El Alquimista, a novel by the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho that has been translated into more than 63 languages and published in 150 countries. The Alchemist tells of the journey of an Andalusian shepherd named Santiago who decides to ask a fortune-teller about a dream that he believes is prophetic. The woman interprets the dream as a prophecy telling the boy that there is a treasure in the pyramids in Egypt.
The main theme of the book is finding the destination. According to The New York Times, The Alchemist is "more self-help than literature." An old king tells Santiago that “when you really want something to happen, the whole universe will conspire to make your wish come true.
Coelho wrote The Alchemist in just two weeks in 1987. He explained that he was able to write at this rate because the story was "already written on his soul."
It was published for the first time by a Brazilian publisher. Despite having sold "well," the publisher of the book told Coelho that he was never going to sell, and that he "could make more money on the stock market."
First edition of The Alchemist
Needing to "heal" from this setback, Coelho left Rio de Janeiro with his wife and spent 40 days in the Mojave Desert. Returning from the excursion, Coelho decided that he had to keep fighting. He was so convinced that it was a great book that he started knocking on doors and kept trying.
You may also be interested in these phrases by Paulo Coelho.
Highlights from The Alchemist
-We have to always be prepared for the surprises of time.
-The most important thing, however, was that every day he realized the great dream of his life: to travel.
-I don't understand how they seek God in the seminary.
-Only the persistent, only those who investigate a lot, are those who achieve the Great Work.
-Because I live neither in my past nor in my future. I have only the present, and that is the only thing that interests me.
-Do not be impatient. As the camel driver said, eat at lunchtime. And walk when walking.
-Courage is the most important gift for those who seek the Language of the World.
-When you want something, the whole Universe conspires to help you get it.
-Remember to always know what you want.
-Never give up your dreams. Follow the signs.
-There is only one way to learn. Through action. Everything you needed to know was taught by the journey.
-A search always begins with the Luck of the Beginner. And it always ends with the Conqueror's Trial.
-Where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.
-It is precisely the possibility of realizing a dream that makes life interesting.
-That's why I told you that your dream was difficult. The simple things are the most extraordinary, and only the wise can see them.
-One always ends up making new friends and it is not necessary to stay with them day after day.
-They are forces that seem bad, but in truth they are teaching how to make your Personal Legend.
-If you start by promising what you don't have yet, you will lose your will to get it.
-Everything in life has a price. And this is what the Warriors of Light are trying to teach.
-People learn their reason for living very early. Maybe that's also why they give up so soon. But that's the way the world is.
-The boy began to envy the freedom of the wind, and realized that it could be like him.
-I am like all people: I see the world as I would like things to happen, and not as they really happen.
He suddenly felt that he could view the world as a poor victim of a thief or as an adventurer in search of treasure.
-This pastry chef does not make sweets because he wants to travel, or because he wants to marry the daughter of a merchant. This pastry chef makes sweets because he likes to make them.
-It is called Favorable Principle, the luck of the beginner. Because life wants you to live your Personal Legend.
-We have to take advantage of when luck is on our side and do everything possible to help her, in the same way that she is helping us.
-If what you have found is made of pure matter, it will never rot. And you can come back one day.
-They were only looking for gold. They were looking for the treasure of their Personal Legend, without wanting to live their own Legend.
-Listen to your heart. He knows everything, because it comes from the Soul of the World, and one day he will return to it.
-Everything that happens once may never happen again. But everything that happens twice will certainly happen a third time.
- What good is money, if you have to die? Money is rarely able to save someone from death.
-When you want something, the whole Universe conspires so that you can do it.
-Everything in life is signs. The Universe was created by a language that everyone understands, but has already been forgotten.
-The closer one gets to the dream, the more the Personal Legend becomes the true reason for living.
-I have crossed these arenas many times. But the desert is so big and the horizons so far away that they make one feel small and remain silent.
-The problem is that they do not realize that they are making new paths every day. They do not perceive that the pastures change, that the seasons are different, because they are only concerned with water and food. Perhaps the same will happen to all of us.
-You have come to know about dreams. And dreams are the language of God. When He speaks the language of the world, I can interpret it. But if it speaks the language of your soul, only you can interpret it.
-It is a book that talks about what almost all books talk about. Of the inability that people have to choose their own destiny. And it ends up making everyone believe the world's biggest lie.
-It's what you always wanted to do. All people, at the beginning of their youth, know what their Personal Legend is. At that moment in life everything is clear, everything is possible.
-Fulfilling your Personal Legend is the only obligation of men. Everything is one thing. And when you want something, the entire Universe conspires to make your wish come true.
-Sometimes I appear in the form of a good start, a good idea. Other times, at a crucial moment, I make everything easier. And things like that. But most people don't realize it.
-Well, this is the only advice I can give you. The secret of happiness is to look at all the wonders of the world, but never forgetting the two drops of oil in the spoon.
-People talk a lot about signs, but they don't realize what they are saying. In the same way that I did not realize that for many years I had been speaking the language of the world with my sheep.
-I can always be a pastor again. I learned how to take care of sheep and I will never forget what they are like again. But you may not have another chance to reach the Pyramids of Egypt.
-I know why I want to go back to my sheep. I already know them; they don't give much work, and they can be loved. I don't know if the desert can be loved, but it is the desert that hides my treasure. If I can't find it, I can always go home.
-When someone made a decision, they were diving into a powerful current that took the person to a place that they would never have dreamed of at the time of deciding.
-The boy began to understand that the presentiments were the rapid plunges that the soul took in this Universal current of life, where the history of all men is linked to each other, and we can know everything, because everything is written.
-We are always afraid of losing what we have, be it our lives or our plantations. But this fear happens when we understand that our history and the history of the world were written by the same Hand.
-This is the principle that moves all things. In Alchemy it is called the Soul of the World. When you want something with all your heart, you are closer to the Soul of the World. It is an always positive force.
-The closer he got to his dream, the more difficult things became. What the king called "beginner's luck" no longer worked.
-And if you improve the present, what will happen later will also be better. Forget the future and live each day of your life in the teachings of the Law and in the trust that God cares for his children. Each day brings eternity.
-It is necessary never to give up, even having come so far. It is necessary to love the desert, but never to trust it entirely.
-Without ever understanding that Love never prevents a man from following his Personal Legend. When this happens, it is because it was not true Love, the one who speaks the Language of the World.
-Each moment of search is a moment of encounter. While I searched for my treasure, all my days were bright, because I knew that each moment was part of the dream of finding.
-Every man on the face of the earth has a treasure that is waiting for him. We hearts are used to speaking little of these treasures, because men no longer have an interest in finding them.
-And the boy immersed himself in the Soul of the World and saw that the Soul of the World was part of the Soul of God, and he saw that the Soul of God was his own soul. And that he could, therefore, perform miracles.