Quotes from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“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.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“But love is always new. Regardless of whether we love once, twice, or a dozen times in our life, we always face a brand-new situation. Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere. We simply have to accept it, because it is what nourishes our existence. If we reject it, we die of hunger, because we lack the courage to stretch out a hand and pluck the fruit from the branches of the tree of life. We have to take love where we find it, even if that means hours, days, weeks of disappointment and sadness.

The moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us. And to save us.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“In real life, love has to be possible. Even if it is not returned right away, love can only survive when the hope exists that you will be able to win over the person you desire.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“Love is like a narcotic. At first it brings the euphoria of complete surrender. The next day, you want more. You’re not addicted yet, but you like the sensation, and you think you can still control things. You think about the person you love for two minutes, and forget them for three hours. But then you get used to that person, and you begin to be completely dependent on them. Now you think about him for three hours and forget him for two minutes. If he’s not there, you feel like an addict who can’t get a fix. And just as addicts steal and humiliate themselves to get what they need, you’re willing to do anything for love.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“Yes, my mind was wandering. I wished I were there with someone who could bring peace to my heart someone with whom I could spend a little time without being afraid that i would lose him the next day. With that reassurance, the time would pass more slowly. We could be silent for a while because we'd know we had the rest of our lives together for conversation. I wouldn't have to worry about serious matters, about difficult decisions and hard words.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“You have to take risks, he said. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen. Every day, God gives us the sun--and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day, we try to pretend that we haven't perceived that moment, that it doesn't exist--that today is the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover that magic moment. It may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like putting our front-door key in the lock; it may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. But that moment exists--a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“Love like rain, can nourish from above, drenching couples with a soaking joy. But sometimes under the angry heat of life, love dries on the surface and must nourish from below, tending to its roots keeping itself alive.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“If I must fall, may it be from a high place.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“Life takes us by surprise and orders us to move toward the unknown -even when we don't want to and when we think we don't need to.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“God always offers us a second chance in life.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“Happiness is something that multiplies when it is divided.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“To love is to lose control.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“But love is much like a dam; if you allow a tiny crack to form through which only a trickle of water can pass, that trickle will quickly bring down the whole structure and soon no one will be able to control the force of the current.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“In fairy tales, the princesses kiss the frogs, and the frogs become princes. In real life, the pricesses kiss princes, and the princes turn into frogs.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“It's risky, falling in love."

"I know that," I answered. "I've been in love before. It's like a narcotic. At first it brings the euphoria of complete surrender. The next day, you want more. You're not addicted yet, but you like the sensation, and you think you can still control things. You think about the person you love for two minutes, and forget them for three hours.

"But then you get used to that person, and you begin to be completely dependent on them. Now you think about him for three hours and forget him for two minutes. If he's not there, you feel like an addict who can't get a fix. And just as addicts steal and humiliate themselves to get what they need, you're willing to do anything for love."

"What a horrible way to put it," he said.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“Joy is sometimes a blessing, but it is often a conquest. Our magic moment help us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams. Yes, we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments — but all of this is transitory it leaves no permanent mark. And one day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“Wait. This was the first lesson I had learned about love. The day drags along, you make thousands of plans, you imagine every possible conversation, you promise to change your behavior in certain ways -- and you feel more and more anxious until your loved one arrives. But by then, you don't know what to say. The hours of waiting have been transformed into tension, the tension has become fear, and the fear makes you embarrassed about showing affection.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“That is why I write - to try to turn sadness into longing, solitude into remembrance.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“But he was wrong. Because I had fought with my heart and defeated it long ago. I was certainly not going to become passionate about something that was impossible. I knew my limits; I knew how much suffering i could bear.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she won’t suffer the way people do when they have a dream to follow. But when that person looks back – and at some point everyone looks back – she will hear her heart saying, “What have you done with the miracles that God planted in your days? What have you done with the talents God bestowed on you? You buried yourself in a cave because you were fearful of losing those talents. So this is your heritage; the certainty that you wasted your life.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“And I began to feel sorry for myself; for so many years, my drawer full of memories had held the same old stories.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“All love stories are the same.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“The moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us. And to save us.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“Go and get your things,' he said. 'Dreams mean work.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“No, I'm not mistaken. I know you don't love me. But I'm going to fight for your love. There are some things in life that are worth fighting for to the end. You are worth it.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“Love doesn't need to be discussed; it has its own voice and speaks for itself.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

About the author

Popular quotes

“read aloud from Emerson: Be true to your own act, and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant, and broken the monotony of a decorous age. It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do.” A simple manly character need never make an a-po-lo-gy…”
― Karen Kondazian, quote from The Whip

“I grow weary of the love
That lasts for a night
When it should be there
The next sunrise”
― Irum Zahra, quote from Psychaotic: See The World In Red And Black

“Well, it’s amazing what you can find in this world if you’re willing to sleep with people.”
― Douglas Coupland, quote from Eleanor Rigby

“The Economics of Property-Casualty Insurance With the acquisition of General Re — and with GEICO’s business mushrooming — it becomes more important than ever that you understand how to evaluate an insurance company. The key determinants are: (1) the amount of float that the business generates; (2) its cost; and (3) most important of all, the long-term outlook for both of these factors. To begin with, float is money we hold but don't own. In an insurance operation, float arises because premiums are received before losses are paid, an interval that sometimes extends over many years. During that time, the insurer invests the money. Typically, this pleasant activity carries with it a downside: The premiums that an insurer takes in usually do not cover the losses and expenses it eventually must pay. That leaves it running an "underwriting loss," which is the cost of float. An insurance business has value if its cost of float over time is less than the cost the company would otherwise incur to obtain funds. But the business is a lemon if its cost of float is higher than market rates for money. A caution is appropriate here: Because loss costs must be estimated, insurers have enormous latitude in figuring their underwriting results, and that makes it very difficult for investors to calculate a company's true cost of float. Errors of estimation, usually innocent but sometimes not, can be huge. The consequences of these miscalculations flow directly into earnings. An experienced observer can usually detect large-scale errors in reserving, but the general public can typically do no more than accept what's presented, and at times I have been amazed by the numbers that big-name auditors have implicitly blessed. As for Berkshire, Charlie and I attempt to be conservative in presenting its underwriting results to you, because we have found that virtually all surprises in insurance are unpleasant ones. The table that follows shows the float generated by Berkshire’s insurance operations since we entered the business 32 years ago. The data are for every fifth year and also the last, which includes General Re’s huge float. For the table we have calculated our float — which we generate in large amounts relative to our premium volume — by adding net loss reserves, loss adjustment reserves, funds held under reinsurance assumed and unearned premium reserves, and then subtracting agents balances, prepaid acquisition costs, prepaid taxes and deferred charges applicable to assumed reinsurance. (Got that?)”
― Warren Buffett, quote from Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders

“You know, when I came home after our day in the city, I just crashed, thinking about Remi and how much I missed him. And then the next day was worse, And when you walked up to me at that ice cream machine, I just felt myself crumble inside. Around Remi, I felt like I was always trying to act like I was good enough. But around you, I don't want to pretend or hide. That's why I didn't say anything in the cafeteria that day, I knew that in five seconds, I'd be crying on your shoulder."

"That's what it's there for, Ethan."

Alek leaned in, took Ethan's face in his hands, and kissed him.”
― Michael Barakiva, quote from One Man Guy

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.