The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate

Nothing erases the past. There is repentance, there is atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but that is enough.

Four things do not come back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity.

Past and future are the same, and we cannot change either, only know them more fully.

Coincidence and intention are two sides of a tapestry, my lord. You may find one more agreeable to look at, but you cannot say one is true and the other is false.

men of experience say, "Four things do not come back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity.

it is a warning to those who would be warned and a lesson to those who would learn.

like infernal fire, grief burns but does not consume; instead, it makes the heart vulnerable to further suffering.

If our lives are tales that Allah tells, then we are the audience as well as the players, and it is by living these tales that we receive their lessons.

I would be honored to relate everything I know of the future, if Your Majesty sees fit to ask, but for myself, the most precious knowledge I possess is this: Nothing erases the past. There is repentance, there is atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but that is enough.

The pleasure you give is returned in the pleasure you receive.

I realize now that, even though the past is unchangeable, one may encounter the unexpected when visiting it.

I spoke to a mullah about what I had done, and it was he who told me that repentance and atonement erase the past.

it is by living these tales that we receive their lessons.

It is said that repentance and atonement erase the past.

O mighty Caliph and Commander of the Faithful, I am humbled to be in the splendor of your presence; a man can hope for no greater blessing as long as he lives.

Do you now understand why I say the future and the past are the same? We cannot change either, but we can know both more fully.

He waved his hand. “I do not sell passage through the Gate,” he said. “Allah guides whom he wishes to my shop, and I am content to be an instrument of his will.

Hassan stared at the boy for a long moment, and then his anger faded, and he let him go. When next he saw his older self, Hassan asked him, “Why did you not warn me about the pickpocket?” “Did you not enjoy the experience?

Just as we grow to understand the purpose of customs that seemed pointless to us in our youth,

Por un momento no tuve claro si estaba soñando o despierto, porque me sentía como si acabase de entrar en un cuento, y la idea de que podría hablar con sus protagonistas y participar en los acontecimientos me produjo vértigo