Variant: What is success? It is being able to go to bed each night with your soul at peace
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra
Quotes from book
Manuscript Found in Accra
Paulo Coelho
Original title
Manuscrito Encontrado em Accra
(Portuguese, 2012)
The latest novel from the #1 internationally best-selling author of The Alchemist. There is nothing wrong with anxiety. Although we cannot control God’s time, it is part of the human condition to want to receive the thing we are waiting for as quickly as possible. Or to drive away whatever is causing our fear. . . . Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind. And since we will never be able to master it, we will have to learn to live with it—just as we have learned to live with storms. * * * July 14, 1099. Jerusalem awaits the invasion of the crusaders who have surrounded the city’s gates. There, inside the ancient city’s walls, men and women of every age and every faith have gathered to hear the wise words of a mysterious man known only as the Copt. He has summoned the townspeople to address their fears with truth: “Tomorrow, harmony will become discord. Joy will be replaced by grief. Peace will give way to war. . . . None of us can know what tomorrow will hold, because each day has its good and its bad moments. So, when you ask your questions, forget about the troops outside and the fear inside. Our task is not to leave a record of what happened on this date for those who will inherit the Earth; history will take care of that. Therefore, we will speak about our daily lives, about the difficulties we have had to face.” The people begin with questions about defeat, struggle, and the nature of their enemies; they contemplate the will to change and the virtues of loyalty and solitude; and they ultimately turn to questions of beauty, love, wisdom, sex, elegance, and what the future holds. “What is success?” poses the Copt. “It is being able to go to bed each night with your soul at peace.” * * * Now, these many centuries later, the wise man’s answers are a record of the human values that have endured throughout time. And, in Paulo Coelho’s hands, The Manuscript Found in Accra reveals that who we are, what we fear, and what we hope for the future come from the knowledge and belief that can be found within us, and not from the adversity that surrounds us. This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra
“Love lasts because it changes and not because it stays the same and never faces any challenges.”
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra
“A life is never useless. Each soul that came down to Earth is here for a reason.”
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), Uselessness
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra
“I'm not worried about tomorrow, because God is there already, waiting for me.”
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra
“Dreaming carries no risks. The dangerous thing is trying to transform your dreams into reality.”
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra
“You will be loved and respected only if you love and respect yourself.”
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra
“The simplest things in life are the most extraordinary. Let them reveal themselves.”
Variant: It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary.
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra
“Allowing someone else to make us happy will make them happy too.”
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra
“If you are never alone, you cannot know yourself.”
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), Uselessness
“Don't try to be useful. Try to be yourself: that is enough & that makes all the difference.”
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), Uselessness
“Love is an act of faith in another person, not an act of surrender.”
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), What should survivors tell their children?
