Paulo Coelho

At every moment of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss.
-Paulo Coelho

The great aim of every human being is to understand the meaning of total love. Love is not to be found in someone else, but in ourselves; we simply awaken it. But in order to do that, we need the other person. The universe only makes sense when we have someone to share our feelings with.
-Paulo Coelho

Pain and suffering are used to justify the one thing that brings only joy: love.
-Paulo Coelho

Considering the way the world is, one happy day is almost a miracle.
-Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes

You have to take risks, he said. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen. Every day, God gives us the sun--and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day, we try to pretend that we haven't perceived that moment, that it doesn't exist--that today is the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover that magic moment. It may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like putting our front-door key in the lock; it may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. But that moment exists--a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles."
-Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Our true friends are those who are with us when the good things happen. They cheer us on and are pleased by our triumphs. False friends only appear at difficult times, with their sad, supportive faces, when, in fact, our suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives.
-Paulo Coelho, The Zahir

Haters are confused admirers who can’t understand why everybody else likes you.
-Paulo Coelho

Love like rain, can nourish from above, drenching couples with a soaking joy. But sometimes under the angry heat of life, love dries on the surface and must nourish from below, tending to its roots keeping itself alive.
-Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

You are someone who is different, but who wants to be the same as everyone else. And that in my view is a serious illness. God chose you to be different. Why are you disappointing God with this kind of attitude?
-Paulo Coelho, Veronika Decides to Die

Borges said there are only four stories to tell: a love story between two people, a love story between three people, the struggle for power and the voyage. All of us writers rewrite these same stories ad infinitum.
-Paulo Coelho

Sorrows do not last forever when we are journeying towards the thing we have always wanted.
-Paulo Coelho