Quotes from book
Aleph

Aleph
Paulo CoelhoOriginal title O Aleph (Portuguese, 2011)

Aleph is a 2011 novel by the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho. An autobiographical account of Coelho, it is his fourteenth major book, and touches on the theme of spirituality. Aleph was written in Coelho's native language, Portuguese.

Paulo Coelho photo

“In magic—and in life—there is only the present moment, the now. You can’t measure time the way you measure the distance between two points. “Time” doesn’t pass. We human beings have enormous difficulty in focusing on the present; we’re always thinking about what we did, about how we could have done it better, about the consequences of our actions, and about why we didn’t act as we should have. Or else we think about the future, about what we’re going to do tomorrow, what precautions we should take, what dangers await us around the next corner, how to avoid what we don’t want and how to get what we have always dreamed of.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“Life is a dream from which we wake only when we meet death.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“Time neither moves nor is stationary. Time changes.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“I have only one certainty: there exists a parallel spiritual universe that impinges on the world in which we live. Apart from that, everything else seems absurd to me—sacred books, revelations, guides, manuals, ceremonies … and, what is worse, they appear to have no lasting effects.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“Whenever I refused to follow my fate, something very hard to bear would happen in my life.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“The light of love flows out of my soul, but it can go nowhere because it’s blocked by pain. I could inhale and exhale every morning for the rest of my life, but that wouldn’t solve anything.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“Here I am, trying to persuade myself that I always give the best of myself, and nature is telling me exactly the opposite: anyone truly committed to life never stops walking.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“Lao-tzu’s words, was: place all your feelings outside of yourself and you will be renewed.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“Never. We never lose our loved ones. They accompany us; they don’t disappear from our lives. We are merely in different rooms. For example, I can’t see who is in the next carriage, but it contains people traveling in the same time as me, as you, as everyone. The fact that we can’t speak to them or know what’s going on in that other carriage is completely irrelevant. They are there. So what we call ‘life’ is a train with many carriages. Sometimes we’re in one, sometimes we’re in another, and sometimes we cross between them, when we dream or allow ourselves to be swept away by the extraordinary.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“If I were to persuade just one person to stop fighting for something they were convinced was worthwhile, I would end up persuading myself, and my whole life would be diminished.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“Every note leaves in each of us a memory, but it is the melody as a whole that tells a story, the story of someone wanting to get closer to another person and who keeps on trying, despite repeated rejections.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“No one can learn to love by following a manual, and no one can learn to write by following a course. I’m not telling you to seek out other writers but to find people with different skills from yourself, because writing is no different from any other activity done with joy and enthusiasm.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“Don’t let yourself be destroyed by a force that was placed in our hearts in order to make everything better.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“You feel that nothing you have learned has put down roots, that while you’re capable of entering the magical universe, you cannot remain submerged in it. You feel that all of this may be nothing but a fantasy dreamed up by people to fend off their fear of death.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“you discover that your old “I,” along with everything you ever learned, is absolutely no use at all in the face of those new challenges, and you begin to realize that buried deep in your unconscious mind there is someone much more interesting and adventurous and more open to the world and to new experiences.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“When I knocked, the door opened. When I looked, I found.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“If someone is giving us something, that’s because we’re incapable of getting it for ourselves.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“So, in my relationships with men, I’ve always sought suffering, conflict, and despair.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Paulo Coelho photo

“What can’t be cured must be endured.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)