Paulo Coelho's Quotes

I had this dream to become a writer since I was a teenager.

I'd have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

Most of my young years were spent under the boots of the military.

There is an afterlife. I am convinced of this.

Everything for me is sacred, beginning with earth, but also going to things made by man.

I never say I am a guru.

In the United States, I am a great success, but I am not a celebrity.

Publishers see free downloads as threatening the sales of the book.

Publishing is in a kind of Jurassic age.

We want to answer this classical question, who am I? So I think that most of our works are for art, or whatever we do, including science or religion, tried to answer that question.

I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death. They thought nobody can make a living from being a writer in Brazil. They were not wrong.

My readers - and I get 400 emails for a day, my readers normally they say, well, you understand me, and I answer, you do understand me also. We are in the same level.

Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.

Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.

When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream.

Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.

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

You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It's just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.

Life was always a matter of waiting for the right moment to act.

No one can lie, no one can hide anything, when he looks directly into someone's eyes.

The wise are wise only because they love. The fool are fools only because they think they can understand love.

One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.

The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people's opinions.

Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.

People are very reluctant to talk about their private lives but then you go to the internet and they're much more open.

All women have a perception much more developed than men. So all women somehow, being repressed for so many millennia, they ended up by developing this sixth sense and contemplation and love. And this is something that we have a hard time to accept as part of our society.

Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere.

I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don't hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.

I'm not saying that love always takes you to heaven. Your life can become a nightmare. But that said, it is worth taking the risk.

Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.

We have lost contact with reality, the simplicity of life.

I cry very easily. It can be a movie, a phone conversation, a sunset - tears are words waiting to be written.

If you start by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work towards getting it.

Of course, to have money is just great because you can do what you think is important to you. I always was a rich person because money's not related to happiness.

It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.

Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.

To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.

An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger.

If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.

When anger rises, think of the consequences.

The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.

What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.

I hear, I know. I see, I remember. I do, I understand.

Study the past, if you would divine the future.

Never give a sword to a man who can't dance.

I want you to be everything that's you, deep at the center of your being.

You cannot open a book without learning something.

I will not be concerned at other men's not knowing me;I will be concerned at my own want of ability.

Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.

We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression.

To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness.

The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has.

When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge.

He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.

The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.

Death and life have their determined appointments; riches and honors depend upon heaven.

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.

Look at the means which a man employs, consider his motives, observe his pleasures. A man simply cannot conceal himself!

To see the right and not to do it is cowardice.

The faults of a superior person are like the sun and moon. They have their faults, and everyone sees them; they change and everyone looks up to them.

Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than thyself.

If we don't know life, how can we know death?

The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.

Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.

He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.

Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

Heaven means to be one with God.

Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.

Virtuous people often revenge themselves for the constraints to which they submit by the boredom which they inspire.

When you are laboring for others let it be with the same zeal as if it were for yourself.