Quotes from Paulo Coelho

I gaze lovingly at Hilal a love that is reflected through time or what we imagine to be time, as in a mirror. She was never mine and never will be; that is how it is. We are both creators and creatures, but we are also puppets in God's hands, and there is a line we cannot cross, a line that was drawn for reasons we cannot know. We can approach and even dabble our toes in the river but we are forbidden to plunge in and let ourselves be carried along by the current.

When faced with a loss, it is no use trying to recover what has gone. On the other hand, a great space has been opened up in your life - there it lies, empty, waiting to be filled with something new. At the moment of one's loss, contradictory as this might seem, one is being given a large slice of freedom.

The worst killing is that which kills the joy we get from life.

She [the Virgin Mary] was normal. She had already had other children. The Bible tells us that Jesus had two brothers. Virginity, as it relates to Jesus, is based on a different thing: Mary initiated a new generation of grace. A new era began. She is the cosmic bride, Earth, which opens to the heavens and allows itself to be fertilized.

You drown not by falling in the river but by staying submerged in it.

She wasn't afraid of difficulties what frightened her was being forced to choose one particular path. Choosing a path meant having to miss out on others. She had a whole life to live and she was thinking that, in future, she might regret the choices she made now. "I am afraid of committing myself" she thought to herself she wanted to follow all possible paths and ended up following none.

You will only be loved and respected if you love and respect yourself. Never try to please everyone; if you do, you will be respected by no one.

Defeat is for the valiant. Only they will know the honor of losing and the joy of winning.

Love always triumphs over what we call death. That's why there's no need to grieve for our loved ones, because they continue to be loved and remain by our side.

How can one set these opposite states in harmony? There is only one way: through giving oneself completely. How does one give oneself? By forgetting the traumas of the past, and by not forming expectations about the future - in other words, the orgasm. How can one do this? Very simply: by not being afraid to err.

I hate knowing about illness. Whenever I read a medical book, I immediately start to get all the symptoms.

Love is an act of faith, not an exchange.