“Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally comes to realise that nothing really belongs to them.”
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Paulo Coelho 844
Brazilian lyricist and novelist 1947Related quotes

Source: The devil in the hills (1949), Chapter 9, p. 319

“In the end, nothing is lost. Every event, for good or evil, has effects forever.”
Source: The Story of Civilization

Source: Helen Craig McCullough's translations, Kokin Wakashū: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry (1985), p. 35

“Nothing is lost. Nothing is forgotten.
It was in the blood, the flesh,
And now it is forever.”
Interphase: Thought Universe (p. 247; closing lines)
Blood Music (1985)

“Already then something was lost forever, a basic trust.”
Source: Beatrice & Virgil (2010), p. 175
Context: I remember the first slap, just as I was being brought in. Already then something was lost forever, a basic trust. If there's an exquisite collection of Meissen porcelain and a man takes a cup and deliberately drops it to the floor, shattering it, why wouldn't he then proceed to break everything else? What difference does it make, cup or tureen, once the man has made clear his disregard for porcelain? With that first blow, something akin to porcelain shattered in me. It was a hard slap, forceful yet casual, given for no reason, before I had even identified myself. If they would do that to me, why wouldn't they do worse? Indeed, how could they stop themselves? A single blow is a dot, meaningless. It's a line that is wanted, a connection between the dots that will give purpose and direction. One blow demands a second and then a third and onwards.

Interview by Kris Herbst for Internet World (June 1994) http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html