Author:: Paulo Coelho
Full Title:: The Alchemist
Tags:#media/book
- themes::
- theme 1
- Summary::
- summary 1
* Highlights first synced by Readwise 2021-01-06
* They never have to make any decisions, he thought. Maybe that’s why they always stay close to me. ([Location 180](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=180))
* We have to be prepared for change, he thought, and he was grateful for the jacket’s weight and warmth. The jacket had a purpose, and so did the boy. His purpose in life was to travel, ([Location 193](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=193))
* It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting, ([Location 231](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=231))
* Another trick, the boy thought. But he decided to take a chance. A shepherd always takes his chances with wolves and with drought, and that’s what makes a shepherd’s life exciting. ([Location 250](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=250))
* When someone sees the same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary, they wind up becoming a part of that person’s life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own. ([Location 285](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=285))
* “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.” ([Location 312](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=312))
* To realize one’s Personal Legend is a person’s only real obligation. All things are one. “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” ([Location 359](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=359))
* between my flock and my treasure, the boy thought. He had to choose between something he had become accustomed to and something he wanted to have. ([Location 421](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=421))
* 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. ([Location 424](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=424))
* ‘The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.’” ([Location 481](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=481))
* That morning he had known everything that was going to happen to him as he walked through the familiar fields. But now, as the sun began to set, he was in a different country, a stranger in a strange land, where he couldn’t even speak the language. He was no longer a shepherd, and he had nothing, not even the money to return and start everything over. ([Location 556](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=556))
* When I had my sheep, I was happy, and I made those around me happy. People saw me coming and welcomed me, he thought. But now I’m 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’m going to hold on to what little I have, because I’m too insignificant to conquer the world. ([Location 562](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=562))
* “I’m like everyone else—I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does.” ([Location 573](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=573))
* This wasn’t a strange place; it was a new one. After all, what he had always wanted was just that: to know new places. ([Location 590](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=590))
* There must be a language that doesn’t depend on words, the boy thought. I’ve already had that experience with my sheep, and now it’s happening with people. ([Location 611](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=611))
* If I can learn to understand this language without words, I can learn to understand the world. ([Location 614](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=614))
* “I’m already used to the way things are. Before you came, I was thinking about how much time I had wasted in the same place, while my friends had moved on, and either went bankrupt or did better than they had before. It made me very depressed. Now, I can see that it hasn’t been too bad. The shop is exactly the size I always wanted it to be. I don’t want to change anything, because I don’t know how to deal with change. I’m used to the way I am.” ([Location 738](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=738))
* every blessing ignored becomes a curse. ([Location 743](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=743))
* It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in and desired. ([Location 795](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=795))
* 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. ([Location 864](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=864))
* the mysterious chain that links one thing to another, the same chain that had caused him to become a shepherd, that had caused his recurring dream, that had brought him to a city near Africa, to find a king, and to be robbed in order to meet a crystal merchant, and … The closer one gets to realizing his Personal Legend, the more that Personal Legend becomes his true reason for being, thought the boy. ([Location 914](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=914))
* intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it’s all written there. ([Location 935](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=935))
* people need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want. ([Location 961](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=961))
* The boy noted that there was a sense of fear in the air, even though no one said anything. Once again he was experiencing the language without words … the universal language. ([Location 969](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=969))
* “Because 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’ll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living right now.” ([Location 1058](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=1058))
* Although the vision of the date palms would someday be just a memory, right now it signified shade, water, and a refuge from the war. Yesterday, the camel’s groan signaled danger, and now a row of date palms could herald a miracle. The world speaks many languages, the boy thought. ([Location 1073](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=1073))
* He had only one explanation for this fact: things have to be transmitted this way because they were made up from the pure life, and this kind of life cannot be captured in pictures or words. Because people become fascinated with pictures and words, and wind up forgetting the Language of the World. ([Location 1089](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=1089))
* the Master Work could be written simply on an emerald. But men began to reject simple things, and to write tracts, interpretations, and philosophical studies. They also began to feel that they knew a better way than others had. ([Location 1552](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=1552))
* 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.” ([Location 1566](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=1566))
* “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 to what it has to say. That way, you’ll never have to fear an unanticipated blow.” ([Location 1593](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=1593))
* Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place. ([Location 1615](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=1615))
* “Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.” The boy remembered an old proverb from his country. It said that the darkest hour of the night came just before the dawn. ([Location 1630](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=1630))
* “When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.” ([Location 1648](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=1648))
* There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” ([Location 1739](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=1739))
* “Yes, that’s what love is. It’s what makes the game become the falcon, the falcon become man, and man, in his turn, the desert. It’s what turns lead into gold, and makes the gold return to the earth.” ([Location 1784](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00U6SFUSS&location=1784))