Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

There are four obstacles to following your dreams

1. Told from childhood on that everything we want to do is impossible
2. We know what we want to do, but are afraid of hurting those around us
3. Fear of defeats along the way (while caring about the result)
4. Fear of realizing the dream that we have fought for our whole life (we feel we do not deserve to achieve our goal, or worry about losing purpose)

Part 1

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting, he thought" (pg 11)

“It’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them.” (pg 15)

“Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should live their lives, but none about his or her own” (pg 16)

"The world’s greatest lie - 'at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate.' That’s the world’s greatest lie.” (pg 18)

“Sometimes it’s better to be with the sheep, who don’t say anything. And better still to be alone with one’s books. They tell their incredible stories at the time when you want to hear them” (pg 19)

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it” (pg 22)

“In the long run, what people think abotu shepherds and bakers becomes more important for them than their own Personal Legends” (pg 23)

“everything in life has a price” (pg 25)

“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 that the sun rises” (pg 27)

⭐ “The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to foreget the drops of oiil on the spoon” (pg 32)

“This wasn’t a strange place; it was a new one” (pg 41)

“This candy merchant isn’t making candy so that later he can travel or marry a shopkeeper’s daughter. He’s doing it because it’s what he wants to do,” thought the boy. He realized that he could do the same thing the old man had done—sense whether a person was near to or far from his Personal Legend. Just by looking at them. It’s easy, and yet I’ve never done it before, he thought” (pg 43)

Part 2

“Every blessing ignored becomes a curse” (pg 58)

“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” (pg 68)

“Everyone has his or her own way of learning things,” he said to himself. “His way isn’t the same as mine, nor mine as his. BUt we’re both in search of our Personal Legends, and I respect him for that” (pg 84)

“The dunes were changed constantly by the winds, yet these were the same sands he had known since he was a child” (pg 86)

“People become fascinated with pictures and words, and wind up forgetting the Language of the World” (pg 87)

“Why a revolver?” he asked. “It helped me to trust in people,” the Englishman answered (pg 89)

⭐ “Here and there, he found a shell, and realized that the desert, in remote times, had been a sea. He sat on a stone, and allowed himself to become hynotized by the horizon. He tried to deal with the concept of love as distinct from possession, and couldn’t separate them” (pg 99)

“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 the 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” (pg 101)

“Then some time during the 4th year, the omens will abandon you because you’ve stopped listening to them” (pg 120)

“There is only one way to learn,” the alchemist answered. “It’s through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey.” (pg 125)

⭐ ”Should I understand the Emerald Tablet?” the boy asked. “Perhaps, if you were in a laboratory of alcehmy, this would be the right time to study the best way to understand the Emerald Tablet. But you are in the desert. So immerse yourself in it. The desert will give you an understanding of the world; in fact, anything on the face of the earth will do that. You don’t even have to understand the desert: all you have to do is contemplate a simple grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation” (pg 127)

“Well then, why should I listen to my heart?” “Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. Even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be there inside you, repeating to you what you’re thinking about life, and about the world” (pg 129)

“Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.” (pg 131)

“He asked that when he wandered far away from his dreams, his heart press him and sound the alarm. The boy sowre that, every time he heard the alarm, he would heed it’s message” (pg 132)

“Thats what alchemists do. They show that when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too” (pg 15)

“Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.” (pg 156)