• “It’s this: that 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.”
• “People learn, early in their lives, what is their reason for being,” said the old man, with a certain bitterness. “Maybe that’s why they give up on it so early, too. But that’s the way it is.”
• you start out by promising what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work toward getting it.”
• “That’s the way it always is,” said the old man. “It’s called the principle of favorability. When you play cards the first time, you are almost sure to win. Beginner’s luck.” “Why is that?” “Because there is a force that wants you to realize your Personal Legend; it whets your appetite with a taste of success.”
• people need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want.
• “We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand.”
• “It’s only those who are persistent, and willing to study things deeply, who achieve the Master Work.
• “I’m alive,” he said to the boy, as they ate a bunch of dates one night, with no fires and no moon. “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 to die as any other.
• “Because 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.
• ‘Eat when it’s time to eat. And move along when it’s time to move along.’”
• “The battles may last for a long time, perhaps even years. There are powerful forces on both sides, and the war is important to both armies. It’s not a battle of good against evil. It’s a war between forces that are fighting for the balance of power, and, when that type of battle begins, it lasts longer than others—because Allah is on both sides.”
• “There is only one way to learn,” the alchemist answered. “It’s through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey. You need to learn only one thing more.”
• to reject simple things, and to write tracts,
• “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.”
• Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.
• There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
• “Usually the threat of death makes people a lot more aware of their lives.”
• no project is completed until its objective has been achieved.
• following your dream is like learning a foreign language; you will make mistakes but you will get there in the end.