Last Updated on September 6, 2024
It’s not surprising to find that you – or someone you know – have already read Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist.
An endearing story about the Andalusian shepherd boy, Santiago, and his journey in search of treasure in the Egyptian pyramids, it’s a tale of courage, passion, and dreams. One of Coelho’s first works, it’s also one of his best and most successful.
Paulo Coelho and The Alchemist
The world renowned Paulo Coelho wasn’t always a writer. Before pursuing his dream, he studied law and was even committed to a mental hospital in his younger years. After that, he traveled the world: going to South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe.
He dabbled in songwriting, journalism, as well as acting. It was only after a 500-mile plus pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 1986 that he decided to seriously follow his dreams of becoming a writer.
Before The Alchemist, Coelho wrote The Pilgrimage, which was published in 1987. According to the writer, he was able to finish The Alchemist in only two weeks because ‘the story was already written in [his] soul’. Originally written in Portuguese and first published in 1988, this story is now an international bestseller.
There are many themes within the story. But the philosophy ‘when you really want something to happen, the whole universe will conspire so that your wish comes true’ plays a huge part throughout the protagonist’s journey. Aside from ‘following your dreams’, many readers also believe that The Alchemist teaches us the values of: not giving up, the wisdom behind Maktub (‘it is written’), and finding the extraordinary behind the ordinary.
Lessons from The Alchemist
To date, The Alchemist has sold over 65 million copies and has been translated in about 80 different languages. It’s a great read if you’re looking for something short and sweet that you can finish in a day.
For those on a spiritual or personal journey, this story is also a good supplement to your quiet reflections. Think about its allegories and why Santiago had to meet all those different individuals throughout his voyage. Accompany your readings with Walter Taieb’s The Alchemist’s Symphony, a work with eight movements and five interludes inspired by the book. For visual readers, a 2010 illustrated interpretation of this classic can also be found on Amazon (The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel).
The book is in itself, a great accompaniment to travelers and students. Whenever you feel de-motivated or spiritless, here are some of the best quotes from The Alchemist to fuel your desire to find your ‘personal legend’.
Powerful The Alchemist Quotes
- “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “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.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “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.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “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.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “Don’t give in to your fears. If you do, you won’t be able to talk to your heart.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “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.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “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.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “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.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “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.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “Your eyes show the strength of your soul.” – Paulo Coehlo, The Alchemist
- “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.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “’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.’” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “If you start by promising what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work towards getting it.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “And, when you can’t go back, you have to worry only about the best way of moving forward.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only obligation.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “There is only one way to learn. It’s through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “When someone sees the same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary, they wind up becoming a part of that person’s life. And then they want the person to change. 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.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “Making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “It is said that all people who are happy have God within them.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “It’s one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it’s another to think that yours is the only path.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say. That way, you’ll never have to fear an unanticipated blow.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “God only rarely reveals the future. When he does so, it is for one reason: it’s a future that was written so as to be altered.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “But if you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World, and you understand why you are here.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “Because true love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “Sometimes there’s just no way to hold back the river.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “I’m alive. When I’m eating that’s all I think about. If I’m on the march, I just concentrate on marching. If I have to fight, it will be just as good a day as any to die. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. Life is the moment we are living now.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “I have inside me the winds, the deserts, the oceans, the stars, and everything created in the universe. We were all made by the same hand, and we have the same soul.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “Whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It’s your mission on earth.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “When you possess great treasures within you and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
- “There was a language in the world that everyone understood, a language the boy had used throughout the time that he was trying to improve things at the shop. It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in and desired.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
