I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man.
You are your own best friend. Never ever, put yourself down.
What is a personal calling? It is God's blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on Earth. Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend. However, we don't all have the courage to confront our own dream.
Those who don't return become a part of the clouds, a part of the animals that hide in the ravines and of the water that comes from the earth. They become a part of everything... they become the Soul of the World.
Find someone who makes you smile, because it only takes a smile to make a day better.
People talked more openly to a psychiatrist than they did to a priest because a doctor couldn't threaten them with Hell.
And 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.
Only two things can reveal life's great secrets: suffering and love.
No one can posses an afternoon of rain beating against the window, or the serenity of a sleeping child, or the magical moment when the waves break on the rocks. No one can posses the beautiful things of this Earth, but we can know them and love them. It is through such moments that God reveals himself to mankind.
It's always easy to blame others. You can spend your entire life blaming the world, but your successes or failures are entirely your own.
That's why I want you to continue toward your goal. If you have to wait until the war is over, then wait. But if you have to go before then, go on in pursuit of your dream. The dunes are changed by the wind, but the desert never changes. That's the way it will be with our love for each other.
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.
THE BOY RODE ALONG THROUGH THE DESERT FOR SEVERAL hours, listening avidly to what his heart had to say. It was his heart that would tell him where his treasure was hidden. Where your treasure is, there also will be your heart, the alchemist had told him. But his heart was speaking of other things.
It is we who nourish the Soul of the World, and the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse.
I don't regret the difficulties I experienced; I think they helped me to become the person I am today. I feel the way a warrior must feel after years of training: he doesn't remember the details of everything he learned, but he knows how to strike when the time is right.
Because you believed I was capable of behaving decently, I did.
Naturally, I seek consolation in other people's suffering.
Join with those who have never said: ‘Right, that's it, I'm going no further,' because as sure as spring follows winter, nothing ever ends; after achieving your objective, you must start again, always using everything you have learned on the way.
Good girls should be dreaming of angels or lovers.
I needed to pass on those secrets to a man I knew well. All my students are terribly virtuous and only show their good qualities. That is dangerous, for virtue often serves to hide vanity, pride and intolerance. That is why I chose the one student I knew really well, the one whose faults I could see most clearly.
Because now he knew where his treasure was.
Blessed are those who are not afraid to admit that they don't know something.
A writer once said that it is not time that changes man, nor knowledge; the only thing that can change someone's mind is love. What nonsense! The person who wrote that clearly knew only one side of the coin.
You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.
Let go of the idea that the path will lead you to your goal. The truth is that with each step we take, we arrive. Repeat that to yourself every morning: 'I've arrived.' That way you'll find it much easier to stay in touch with each second of your day.
We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that yours is the only path.
Love transforms, Love heals. But sometimes it lays deadly traps and ends up destroying the person who decided to surrender himself completely.
There are three things that a child can teach an adult: To be happy for no reason; to be always busy doing something; And to know how to demand – with all one's might – what one wants.
Dreams mean work.
The only way to beat temptation is to give in to it.
Dreaming carries no risks. The dangerous thing is trying to transform your dreams into reality.
The boy felt jealous of the freedom of the wind, and saw that he could have the same freedom. There was nothing to hold him back except himself.
I love almost everything about my work except conferences. I am too shy in front of an audience. But I love signings and having eye contact with a reader who already knows my soul.
Every day, God gives us the sun — and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy.
What is outside is harder to change than what is inside.
We must struggle in order to grow.
There must be a language that doesn't depend on words.
No matter how you are feeling, get up every morning and prepare to let your light shine forth. Those with eyes to see will see your light and be enchanted by it.
A fall from the third floor hurts as much as a fall from the hundredth. If I have to fall, may it be from a high place.
Liars...are people who seek popularity and recognition. Even when faced with truth, they always find a way to escape, coldly repeating what had just been said or blaming the accuser of speaking untruths.
The will was the main target of bitterness.
All I know is that, like Santiago the shepherd boy, we all need to be aware of our personal calling. What is a personal calling? It is God's blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on Earth. Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend.
She took off her blouse, her trousers, her bra, her panties, and stood before him naked.
Writing is a socially acceptable form of getting naked in public.
Blessed are those who do not fear solitude, who are not afraid of their own company, who are not always desperately looking for something to do, something to amuse themselves with, something to judge. If you are never alone, you cannot know yourself.
Elegance is accepted and admired because it makes no effort to be elegant.
Without you I don't exist. Anything and anyone who tries to separate us or to destroy the little time we have together at this particular moment of our lives gets the treatment they deserve.
