“Although the boy had developed a superstition that each time he opened the book he would learn something important, he decided it was an unnecessary burden.”
“We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand.”
“‘Don’t say anything,’ Fatima interrupted. ‘One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.'”
“That night, the boy slept deeply, and, when he awoke, his heart began to tell him things that came from the Soul of the World. It said that all people who are happy have God within them. And that happiness could be found in a grain of sand from the desert, as the alchemist had said. Because a grain of sand is a moment of creation, and the universe has taken millions of years to create it. ‘Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him,’ his heart said. ‘We, people’s hearts, seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer want to go in search of them. We speak of them only to children. Later, we simply let life proceed, in its own direction, toward its own fate. But, the path to their Personal Legends, and to happiness. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.”
“Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.”
“‘To show you one of life’s simple lessons,’ the alchemist answered. ‘When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.'”
“Your eyes show the strength of your soul.”
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
“‘Then you’ll die in the midst of trying to realize your Personal Legend. That’s a lot better than dying like millions of other people, who never even knew that their Personal Legends were. But don’t worry,’ the alchemist continued, ‘Usually the threat of death makes people a lot more aware of their lives.'”
“The dead soldiers were replaced by others, and life went on. Death doesn’t change anything, the boy thought.”
“‘You could have died later on,’ a soldier said to the body of one of his companions. ‘You could have died after peace had been declared. But, in any case, you were going to die.'”
“A current of love rushed from his heart, and the boy began to pray. It was a prayer that he had never said before, because it was a prayer without words or pleas. His prayer didn’t give thanks for his sheep having found new pastures; it didn’t ask that the boy be able to sell more crystal; and it didn’t beseech that the woman he had met continue to await his return. In the silence, the boy understood that the desert, the wind, and the sun were also trying to understand the signs written by the hand, and were seeking to follow their paths, and to understand what had been written on a single emerald. He saw that omens were scattered throughout the earth and in space, and that there was no reason or significance attached to their appearance, he could see that not the deserts, nor the winds, nor the sun, nor people knew why they had been created. But that the hand had a reason for all of this, and that only the hand could perform miracles, or transform the sea into a desert…or a man into the wind. Because only the hand understood that it was a larger design that had moved the universe to the point at which six days of creation had evolved into a Master Work.”
“Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.”
“The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.”
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”
“You will never be able to escape from your heart. So its better to listen to what it has to say. That way, you’ll never have to fear an unanticipated blow.”
“People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly.”
elianasbk 