I'll quote from Ecclesiastes to the Catholics, from the Koran to the Muslims, from the Torah to the Jews, from Aristotle to the atheists.

Love is an act of faith and its face should always be covered in mystery. Every moment should be lived with feeling and emotion because if we try to decipher it and understand it, the magic disappears.

Sometimes, when loneliness seems about to crush everything, the only way to resist is to keep on loving.

Do you know where the word ‘asylum' comes from? she was saying. It dates back to the Middle Ages, from a person's right to seek refuge in churches and other holy places. The right to asylum is something any civilized person can understand. So how could my father, the director of an asylum, treat someone like that?

You're not trying to find the answer to a question, you're simply trying to confirm something you desperately want to believe: that everyone is evil.

Don't give in to your fears, said the alchemist, in a strangely gentle voice. If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart. But I have no idea how to turn myself into the wind. If a person is living out his Personal Legend, he knows everything he needs to know.

Because these papyri transport ideas, he replied. And ideas have power.