The Alchemist

I just finished reading "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho.
This story is about a boy who gets two dreams that there is treasure hidden under the pyramid in Egypt. He is a Sheppard, and is not exactly sure whether to follow that intuition. He goes to a fortune teller, and she says he should go for it. But again, he is discouraged. He sits on a bench and reads, and a king disguised as hobo comes to him and gives him the chance, hope and encouragement to follow his dream/intuition. The boy starts his journey, but half way there is discouraged because of reality, but after another year of cleaning/selling crystals, he continues his journey. He falls in love in an Arab country and that encourages him to stay back and settle down as a family man, but his love encourages him to go after his personal legend. Again he goes off to his personal legend, and again finds few struggles, but has learned the power and strength to resolve them. He meets an Alchemist on the way, in the desert, and the Alchemist guides him through everything.


Quotes from Story
"What is the world's greatest lie?"...."It's this: that 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." (18)

"And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it." (22)

"..If you start out by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work toward getting it" (25)

"....But now I am sad and alone. I'm going to become bitter and distrustful of people because one person betrayed me. I'm going to hate those who have found their treasure because I never found mine. And I am going to hold on to little I have, because I'm too insignificant to conquer the world." (39)

"I'm like everyone else- I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does." (40)

"He realized: If I can learn to understand this language without words, I can learn to understand the world." (44)

"He still had some doubts about the decision he had made. But he was able to understand one thing: making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will take him places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision." (68)

"People need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need or want."

"...that is was a good thing for the boy to clean the crystal pieces, so that he could free himself from negative thoughts. The boy was becoming more and more convinced that alchemy could be learned in one's daily life." (81)

"And when two people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun had been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one's dreams would have no meaning." (93)

"If good things are coming, they will be a pleasant surprise. If bad things are, and you know in advance, you will suffer greatly before they even occur." (102)

"All of us know that whoever believes in dreams also knows how to interpret them." (107)

"Courage is the quality most essential to understanding the Language of the World." (111)

"Its not what enters men's mouth that's evil..it's what comes out of their mouth that is." (115)

"....One is loved because one if loved. No reason is needed for loving." (122)

"My heart is a traitor...It doesn't want me to go on.....That makes sense...naturally it's afraid that, in pursuing your dreams, you might loose everything you won...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 about the world...You mean I should listen, even if it's treasonous...Treason is a blow that comes unexpectedly. If you know your heart well, it will never be able to do that to you. Because you'll know its dreams and wishes, and will know how to deal with them. You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it's better to listen what it has to say. That way you will never have to fear an unexpected blow." (129)

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

"Your eyes show the strength of your soul." (136)

"....Because they understood that when something evolves, everything around that thing evolves as well." (137)

"But don't worry, the alchemist continued, Usually the threat of a death makes people a lot more aware of their lives." (142)

"And look how many things the wind already knew how to do! It created deserts, sank ships, felled entire forests, and blew cities filled with music and strange noises. It felt it had no limits..."(147)

"That's what alchemist do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too." (150)

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