Quotes from The Alchemist

I had been meaning to read Paulo Coelho's much talked The Alchemist for years now, and finally got around to doing it last week. I liked the book. A lot. But I think I will have to go back and read it again because there are so many layers to the story. 

It's an inspirational tale of pursuing one's dreams. The story is of an Andalusian shepherd who goes in search of his treasure from Spain to Morocco and finally to Egypt. The locations itself had my attention - the story did not even need to be captivating for me to read a book that's got 3 of my top places I want to visit! South of Spain, Morocco and Egypt - I'd read any book based on these countries. An amazing story line and some beautiful quotes are cherry on top. 

I won't even try reviewing it, because the book is too deep and I will not be able to do much justice to it. However, while reading, I marked down some of my favourite quotes from the book, and I feel like the quotes deserve a blog post of their own!

I started out with quotes in pictures, but realized there were too many I like and too lazy I am to go through all that work. So after a few picture ones, I gave up. All pictures are my own. 

"... 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.” 

“He never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dreamed of.” 

“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.”

"If you pay attention to the present, you can improve on it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings."

"When you make a decision, you are really diving in a strong current that will bring you to places you never dreamed of when you first made that decision."

"...and when each day is the same as next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day the sun rises."

“His way isn't the same as mine, nor mine as his. But we're both in search of our destinies, and I respect him for that."

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” 

“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” 

"Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn’t have the courage to say “yes” to life?”

"What you still need to know is this: before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream."