Top 2109 Quotes & Sayings by Paulo Coelho

I am 100 per cent Virgo, stubborn, over-organised, slightly abstracted from the rest of the world.

Elegance is achieved when all that is superfluous has been discarded and the human being discovers simplicity and concentration: the simpler and more sober the posture, the more beautiful it will be.

All women have a perception much more developed than men. So all women somehow, being repressed for so many millennia, they ended up by developing this sixth sense and contemplation and love. And this is something that we have a hard time to accept as part of our society.

Writing means sharing. It's part of the human condition to want to share things - thoughts, ideas, opinions.

The good old days, when each idea had an owner, are gone forever.

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

We have lost contact with reality, the simplicity of life.

Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.

No one can lie, no one can hide anything, when he looks directly into someone's eyes.

It's not difficult for me to put my feelings into written form. I try to be concise and to go direct to the subject. This is what people like about my work, and what the critics hate.

Everybody has a creative potential and from the moment you can express this creative potential, you can start changing the world.

Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure.

In writing, I apply my feminine side and respect the mystery involved in creation.

I have spent every New Year's Eve since 1992 in Lourdes. I spend the hour of my birth every year in the grotto. It's a place with meaning for me.

Let us be absolutely clear about one thing: we must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility.

When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream.

Of course, to have money is just great because you can do what you think is important to you. I always was a rich person because money's not related to happiness.

I'm not saying that love always takes you to heaven. Your life can become a nightmare. But that said, it is worth taking the risk.

What interests me in life is curiosity, challenges, the good fight with its victories and defeats.

Beauty is the greatest seducer of man.

I cry very easily. It can be a movie, a phone conversation, a sunset - tears are words waiting to be written.

I don't try to control my days.

One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.

When you are enthusiastic about what you do, you feel this positive energy. It's very simple.

You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

Life was always a matter of waiting for the right moment to act.

You're always learning. The problem is, sometimes you stop and think you understand the world. This is not correct. The world is always moving. You never reach the point you can stop making an effort.

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.

The more in harmony with yourself you are, the more joyful you are and the more faithful you are. Faith is not to disconnect you from reality - it connects you to reality.

With all due respect, the Mona Lisa is overrated.

Everybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament; it's how you deal with your life, with your surroundings.

Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.

The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people's opinions.

Elegance is usually confused with superficiality, fashion, lack of depth. This is a serious mistake: human beings need to have elegance in their actions and in their posture because this word is synonymous with good taste, amiability, equilibrium and harmony.

No, I never saw an angel, but it is irrelevant whether I saw one or not. I feel their presence around me.

I think you can have 10,000 explanations for failure, but no good explanation for success.

The wise are wise only because they love. The fool are fools only because they think they can understand love.

Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere.

Music for me, it demands full concentration.

We have to stop and be humble enough to understand that there is something called mystery.

However happy people say they are, nobody is satisfied: we always have to be with the prettiest woman, buy a bigger house, change cars, desire what we do not have.

Every day I try to be in communication with the universe in an unconscious way.

If you start by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work towards getting it.

I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the art of patience and to respect the fury of nature.

You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.

I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfil our destiny, but our fate is sealed.

Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.

When I'm dancing, I'm not thinking about anything. I am here. I am totally there. You know? And the feeling is a sensation of being away from myself. My soul dances with the angels, and my body dances with my wife.

I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don't hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.

Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.

I am a Catholic, not so committed to the church, but to the idea of the Virgin, the female face of God.

People are very reluctant to talk about their private lives but then you go to the internet and they're much more open.

You should treat a muse like a fairy.

The more violent the storm, the quicker it passes.

I'm not a person that socializes very well.

Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.

Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.

Things do not always happen the way I would like them to happen, and I had better get used to that.

You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It's just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.

Everything is possible, from angels to demons to economists and politicians.