The Alchemist

It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting. (p11)


What's the world's greatest lie? It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. (p18)


The boy didn't know what a person's "destiny" was. It's what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their destiny is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny. (p22)


And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. (p23)


People learn early in their lives what is their reason for being. (p25)


When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision. (p71)


Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life. (p77)


When you want something with all your heart, that's when you are closest to the Soul of the World. It's always a positive force. (p82)


The alchemists spent years in their laboratories, observing the fire that purified the metals. They spent so much time close to the fire that gradually they gave up the vanities of the world. They discovered that the purification of the metals had led to a purification of themselves (p85)


"I learned that the world has a soul, and that whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of things. I learned that many alchemists realized their destinies, and wound up discovering the Soul of the World, the Philosopher's Stone, and the Elixir of Life. But above all, I learned that these things are all so simple they could be written on the surface of an emerald." (p87)


I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living now. (p88/89)


Because people become fascinated with pictures and words, and wind up forgetting the Language of the World. (p91)


In his pursuit of the dream, he was being constantly subjected to tests of his persistence and courage. So he could not be hasty, nor impatient. If he pushed forward impulsively, he would fail to see the signs and omens left by God along his path. (p93)


When you are in love, things make even more sense, he thought. (p105)
Courage is the quality most essential to understanding the Language of the World. (p117)


Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure. You've got to find the treasure, so that everything you have learned along the way can make sense. (p122)


"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. (p132)


The wise men understood that this natural world is only an image and a copy of paradise. The existence of this world is simply a guarantee that there exists a world that is perfect. God created the world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and the marvels of this wisdom. That's what I mean by action." (p133)


All you have to do is contemplate a simple grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation. Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World, and it will one day return there. (p134)


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. (p136)


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.


Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him. (p138)


Every search begins with beginners luck and ends with the victor's being severely tested. (p139)


The boy and his heart had become friends, and neither was capable now of betraying the other. (p141)


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. (p155)

"If you start out by promising what you don't have even yet, you'll lose your desire toward getting it"(p25)

"God has prepared a path for everyone to follow. You just have to read the omens that He left for you"(p30)

"People need not fear the unknown, if they are capable of achieving what they need and want"(p79)

"Once you get into the desert, there's no going back. And when you can't go back, you have to worry only about the best way of moving forward; the rest is up to Allah, including the danger."(p80/81)

"We make a lot of detours, but we are always heading for the same desitnation"(p81)

"Imagine if everyone went around transforming lead into gold. Gold would lose its value"(p86)

"If I have to fight, it will be just as good a day to die as any other"(p88)

"The dunes are changed by the wind, but the desert never changes. That's the way it will be with our love fo each other"(p102)

"You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit, its because that wasn't true love....the love that speaks the Language of the Wrold"(p126)

Some more Quotes:

**When we love, we always strive to become better than we are.

**When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.

**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.

**When you know that language, it's easy to believe that someone in the world awaits you, whether it's in the middle of the desert or in some great city… without such love, one's dreams would have no meaning.

**There was a language in the world that everyone understood, a language the boy had used throughout the time that he was trying to improve things at the shop. It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in and desired.

**You must always know what it is that you want.

**Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him.

**The world's greatest lie: At a certain point in our lives we lose control of what's happening to us and our lives become controlled by fate.

**It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.

**"You came so that you could learn about your dreams," said the old woman. "And dreams are the language of God. When he speaks in our language, I can interpret what he has said. But if he speaks in the language of the soul, it is only you who can understand."

**Wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.

**There is only one way to learn. It's through action.

**Every blessing ignored becomes a curse. I don't want anything else in life. But you are forcing me to look at wealth and at horizons I have never known. Now that I have seen them, and now that I see how immense my possibilities are, I'm going to feel worse than I did before you arrived. Because I know the things I should be able to accomplish, and I don't want to do so.

**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.

**Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.

**No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it.

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

**Making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.

**People need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want. 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.

**Because I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. .... Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now.

**Life really is generous to those who pursue their destiny.

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

**Once upon a time a vivisor came to the monastery looking for the purpose and meaning of life.
The teacher said to the visitor, 'If what you seek is Truth, there is one thing you must have above all else.'
"I know," said the visitor. "To find truth I must have an overwhelming passion for it."
"No," the Teacher said. "In order to find Truth, you must have an unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong."

**..."Everyone, when they are young, knows what their destiny is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives."

**...."whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It's your mission on earth." ...."And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to acheive it."

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

***We have to take advantage when luck is on our side, and do as much to help it as its doing to help us. Its called the principle of favorability. Or beginners luck.

*****God only rarely reveals the future. When he does so, it is for one reason: it's a future that was written so as to be altered.

***The problem is that they (the sheep) don't even realize that they're walking a new road every day. They don't see that the fields are new and the seasons change. All they think about is food and water. Maybe we're all that way, the boy mused.

***It (mysterious force) is a force that appears to be negative, but actually shows you how to realize your destiny. It prepares your spirit and your will ......

*****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***t's called the principle of favorability. When you play cards the first time, you are almost sure to win. Beginner's luck. Why is that? Because there is a force that wants you to realize your destiny; it whets your appetite with a taste of success.

***I'm like everyone else -- I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does.

*****He could always go back to being a shepherd. He could always become a crystal salesman again. Maybe the world had other hidden treasures, but he had a dream, and he had met with a king. That doesn't happen to just anyone!

*#*^*There's no such thing as coincidence ... the mysterious chain that links one thing to another, the same chain that had caused him to become a shepherd, that had caused his recurring dream, that had brought him to a city near Africa, to find a king, and to be robbed in order to meet a crystal merchant, and ...

*~*^**Why do we have to listen to our hearts?" "Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you'll find your treasure."
"But my heart is agitated," the boy said. "It has its dreams, it gets emotional, and it's become passionate over a woman of the desert. It asks things of me, and it keeps me from sleeping many nights, when I'm thinking about her." "Well, that's good. Your heart is alive. Keep listening to what it has to say."
"Because you will never again be able to keep it (heart) quiet. Even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be there inside you, repeating to you what you're thinking about life and about the world."
"Even though I complain sometimes, " it (heart) said, "it's because I'm the heart of a person, and people's hearts are that way. 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." .....

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nahin nigah main manzil to justaju hi sahi
nahin wisaal mayassar to arzu hi sahi

I think its the most wonderfull piece of writing I've ever experienced in reading. It takes me to a land of wonder.... to have a look into the "Nature's Mysterious Ways...." to find the destiny we are destined to........... and its true....... !!!

My best friend recommended reading Alchemist a while ago but I ignored but nw I wonder y havn't I had a look on it earlier........!!!
And I believe this is going to be my favourite too.

Thnx allot everyone for sharing.