The Alchemist

It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting

A shepherd always takes his chances with wolves and with drought, and that’s what makes a shepherd’s life exciting.

It’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them.

When someone sees the same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary, they wind up becoming a part of that person’s life. And then they want the person to change. 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.

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

The old man pointed to a baker standing in his shop window at one corner of the plaza. “When he was a child, that man wanted to travel, too. But he decided first to buy his bakery and put some money aside. When he’s an old man, he’s going to spend a month in Africa. He never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”

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

“I’m like everyone else—I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does.”

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

“Maktub,” the merchant said, finally. “What does that mean?” “You would have to have been born an Arab to understand,” he answered. “But in your language it would be something like ‘It is written.’”

“When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it,”

The closer one gets to realizing his Personal Legend, the more that Personal Legend becomes his true reason for being, thought the boy.

“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.”

‘Eat when it’s time to eat. And move along when it’s time to move along.’

when you know that language, it’s easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it’s in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning.

They became friends, and except for the fifteen minutes he spent with her, each day seemed that it would never pass.

“Maktub,” she said. “If I am really a part of your dream, you’ll come back one day.”

“I have to separate out the sulfur. To do that successfully, I must have no fear of failure. It was my fear of failure that first kept me from attempting the Master Work. Now, I’m beginning what I could have started ten years ago. But I’m happy at least that I didn’t wait twenty years.”

Every day was there to be lived or to mark one’s departure from this world.

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

“You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his Personal Legend. If he abandons that pursuit, it’s because it wasn’t true love . . . the love that speaks the Language of the World.”

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

“There is only one way to learn,” the alchemist answered. “It’s through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey. You need to learn only one thing more.”

“Why are you called the alchemist?” “Because that’s what I am.” “And what went wrong when other alchemists tried to make gold and were unable to do so?” “They were looking only for gold,” his companion answered. “They were seeking the treasure of their Personal Legend, without wanting actually to live out the Personal Legend.”

“Why do we have to listen to our hearts?” the boy asked, when they had made camp that day. “Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure.”

“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.”

Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.

“When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.”

when something evolves, everything around that thing evolves as well.

“If a person is living out his Personal Legend, he knows everything he needs to know. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”

When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there’s no need at all to understand what’s happening, because everything happens within you

“That’s what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.”

“Don’t say that again. Life might be listening, and give you less the next time.”

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