“When you can't go back, you have to worry only about the best way of moving forward.”
Source: The Alchemist
Quotes from book
The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho
Original title
O Alquimista
(Portuguese, 1988)
The Alchemist is a novel by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho that was first published in 1988. Originally written in Portuguese, it became a widely translated international bestseller. An allegorical novel, The Alchemist follows a young Andalusian shepherd in his journey to the pyramids of Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding a treasure there.
Source: The Alchemist (1988), p. 18.
“The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.”
Variant: simple things are the most valuable and only wise people appreciate them".
Source: The Alchemist
“You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it's better to listen to what it has to say”
Variant: You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it's better to listen to what it has to say.
Source: The Alchemist
The alchemist uses this expression at p. 23, but it is one that does not originate with Coelho, though his work has popularized it.
Source: The Alchemist (1988)
“People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”
Source: The Alchemist
Variant: You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit, it's because it wasn't true love... the love that speaks the Language of the World.
Source: The Alchemist
