Eleven Minutes
Quotes from the Book
And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.
One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.
When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.
There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.
So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.
The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.
The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.
Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.
Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.
Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity.
No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it.
Don't give in to your fears. If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart.
This is what we call love. When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there's no need at all to understand what's happening, because everything happens within you.
People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.
We are travelers on a cosmic journey,stardust,swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.
Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.
If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.
I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living now.
When each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.
Why do we have to listen to our hearts?" the boy asked. "Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you will find your treasure.
When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.
You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it's better to listen to what it has to say.
It was the pure Language of the World. It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing. He was more certain of it than of anything in the world. He had been told by his parents and grandparents that he must fall in love and really know a person before becoming committed. But maybe people who felt that way had never learned the universal language. Because, when you know that language, it's easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it's in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one's dreams would have no meaning.
If you start by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work towards getting it.
Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life.
Don't think about what you've left behind" The alchemist said to the boy as they began to ride across the sands of the desert. "If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return.
Did you know?
- The novel was originally written in Portuguese under the title O Alquimista and first published in Brazil in 1988.
- Its first Brazilian publisher printed only about 900 copies before the book went on to sell more than 150 million worldwide.
- The Alchemist has been translated into more than 65 languages, helping make Paulo Coelho one of the most translated living authors.
- Coelho said he named the shepherd Santiago partly out of admiration for Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, whose hero is also named Santiago.
- The English translation by Alan R. Clarke appeared in 1993, five years after the Portuguese original.
About Paulo Coelho
More by Paulo Coelho
All books by Paulo Coelho →About the book
The Alchemist (O Alquimista) is an allegorical novel by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, first published in Portuguese in 1988 and released in English in 1993. It follows Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who has a recurring dream of finding treasure at the Egyptian pyramids. Encouraged by a fortune-teller and a mysterious old king named Melchizedek, he sets out across North Africa, working for a crystal merchant, joining a caravan through the desert, falling in love with a woman named Fatima at an oasis, and eventually meeting the alchemist who guides the final stretch of his quest.
The book is built around the idea of following one's 'Personal Legend' - the destiny each person is called to pursue - and its most quoted line holds that 'when you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true.' Its themes of listening to one's heart, reading the omens of life, and finding meaning in the journey rather than the destination give the story the feel of a fable or spiritual parable, and critics have often described it as sitting closer to inspirational self-help than to literary fiction.
Despite an initial print run of only about 900 copies from its first Brazilian publisher, The Alchemist became a worldwide phenomenon, translated into more than 65 languages and selling well over 150 million copies. It helped make Paulo Coelho one of the most widely read and translated living authors, recognized by Guinness World Records, and its simple, quotable message of pursuing one's dreams has kept it a fixture on bestseller and recommended-reading lists for decades.
Key characters
- SantiagoThe Andalusian shepherd boy whose dream of treasure launches the journey
- MelchizedekThe old King of Salem who urges Santiago to pursue his Personal Legend
- The AlchemistA wise desert master who guides Santiago near the end of his quest
- FatimaA woman of the desert oasis whom Santiago falls in love with
- The Crystal MerchantA shopkeeper Santiago works for who fears chasing his own dream
- The EnglishmanA scholar traveling to learn from the alchemist
Book details
- First published
- 1988
- Length
- 163 pages
- Reading time
- 2.5 hours
- Author
- Paulo Coelho
- Genre
- Classics
- Goodreads rating
- 3.92 (3.7M ratings) →
- First line
- “The boy's name was Santiago.”
If you liked this, read…
- 1Jonathan Livingston SeagullA short, fable-like tale about following one's inner calling
- 2SiddharthaA spiritual journey toward self-discovery and meaning
- 3The Little PrinceAn allegorical story with simple prose and universal life lessons
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