Who on Earth is Paulo Coelho?

“A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires.”

“A fall from the third floor hurts as much as a fall from the hundredth. If I have to fall, may it be from a high place.”

“Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.”

“All you have to do is to pay attention; lessons always arrive when you are ready, and if you can read the signs, you will learn everything you need to know in order to take the next step.”

“Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally comes to realise that nothing really belongs to them.”

“Anyone who loves in the expectation of being loved in return is wasting their time.”

“Be crazy! But learn how to be crazy without being the center of attention. Be brave enough to live different.”

“Certain things in life simply have to be experienced — and never explained. Love is such a thing.”

“Don't allow your mind to tell your heart what to do. The mind gives up easily.”

“Don't give in to your fears. If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart.”

“Don't listen to the malicious comments of those friends who, never taking any risks themselves, can only see other people's failures.”

“Don't waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.”

“Don’t be intimidated by other people’s opinions. Only mediocrity is sure of itself, so take risks and do what you really want to do.”

“Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.”

“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?”

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

“Forgive but do not forget, or you will be hurt again. Forgiving changes the perspectives. Forgetting loses the lesson.”

“Haters are confused admirers who can’t understand why everybody else likes you.”

“How much I missed, simply because I was afraid of missing it.”

“Human beings can withstand a week without water, two weeks without food, many years of homelessness, but not loneliness. It is the worst of all tortures, the worst of all sufferings.”

“I can choose either to be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It's all a question of how I view my life.”

“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.”

“I'm not a body with a soul, I'm a soul that has a visible part called the body.”

“If I am really a part of your dream, you'll come back one day.”

“If pain must come, may it come quickly. Because I have a life to live, and I need to live it in the best way possible. If he has to make a choice, may he make it now. Then I will either wait for him or forget him.”

“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 love someone, you must be prepared to set them free.”

“If you think adventure is dangerous, try normal; its lethal.”

“In the end, the most interesting people always leave.”

“It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn't matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over.”

“It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary.”

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

“Life always waits for some crisis to occur before revealing itself at its most brilliant.”

“Life is too short, or too long, for me to allow myself the luxury of living it so badly.”

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

“Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused.”

“Love is what makes you smile when you are tired.”

“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.”

“No one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it.”

“None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have faith.”

“Nothing in the world is ever completely wrong. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”

“Nothing in this world happens by chance.”

“Now that she had nothing to lose, she was free.”

“One has to understand that braveness is not the absence of fear but rather the strength to keep on going forward despite the fear.”

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

“Passion makes a person stop eating, sleeping, working, feeling at peace. A lot of people are frightened because, when it appears, it demolishes all the old things it finds in its path.”

“People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”

“People are sad because they are the prisoners of their personal history. Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan. They never ask if that plan is theirs or if it was created by another person. They accumulate experiences, memories, things, other people's ideas, and it is more than they can possibly cope with. And that is why they forget their dreams.”

“People never learn anything by being told, they have to find out for themselves.”

“Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.”

“Respect is for those who deserve
not for those who demand it.”

“Sometimes, we are so attached to our way of life that we turn down wonderful opportunities simply because we don't know what to do with it.”

“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.”

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

“The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.”

“The strongest love is the love that can demonstrate its fragility.”

“The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter.”

“There are moments when troubles enter our lives and we can do nothing to avoid them. But they are there for a reason. Only when we have overcome them will we understand why they were there.”

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

“There is only one way to learn. It's through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey.”

“This world is full of idiots distributed strategically so you can meet at least one per day.”

“To realize one's destiny is a person's only obligation.”

“Travel is never a matter of money but of courage.”

“Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering.”

“We can also allow our soulmate to pass us by without accepting him or her, or even noticing. Then we will need another incarnation in order to find that Soulmate. And because of our selfishness, we will be condemned to the worst torture humankind ever invented for itself: loneliness.”

“We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that yours is the only path.”

“We must never stop dreaming. Dreams provide nourishment for the soul, just as a meal does for the body.”

“What is a teacher? I'll tell you: it isn't someone who teaches something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her best in order to discover what she already knows.”

“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.”

“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.”

“When I had nothing to lose, I had everything. When I stopped being who I am, I found myself.”

“When someone leaves, it's because someone else is about to arrive.”

“When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.”

“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.”

“When you can't go back, you have to worry only about the best way of moving forward.”

“When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.”

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

“You are what you believe yourself to be.”

“You have two choices, to control your mind or to let your mind control you.”

“Your eyes show the strength of your soul.”