Lessons I Learned from THE ALCHEMIST (Part 1)

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He told himself that he would have to start reading thicker books: they lasted longer and made comfortable pillows.

• He told himself that he would have to start reading thicker books: they lasted longer and made comfortable pillows.
• He was sure the girl would never understand.
• As the time passed, the boy find himself wishing that the day would never end.
• They never have to make any decisions, he thought. Maybe that’s why they always stay close to me.
• The only things that concerned the sheep were food and water. As long as the boy knew how to find the best pastures in Andalusia, they would be his friends.
• They trust me, and they’ve forgotten how to rely on their own instincts, because I lead them to nourishment.
• The heat lasted until nightfall, and all that time he had to carry his jacket. But when he thought to complain about the burden of its weight, he remembered that, because he had the jacket, he had withstood the cold of the dawn. We have to be prepared for change, he thought, and he was grateful for the jacket’s weight and warmth.
• But ever since he had been a child, he had wanted to know the world, and this was much more important to him than knowing God and learning about man’s sins.
• The boy could see in his father’s gaze a desire to be able, himself, to travel the world- a desire that was still alive, despite his father’s having had to bury it, over dozens of years, under the burden of struggling for water to drink, food to eat, and the same place to sleep every night of his life.
• But most important, he was able every day to live out his dream.
• The problem is that they don’t even realize that they’re walking a new road every day. They don’t see that the fields are new and the season change. All they think about is food and water.
• Maybe we’re all that way, the boy mused. Even me- I haven’t thought of the other women since I met the merchant’s daughter.
• It’s only the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to to understand them.
• He always made new friends, and he didn’t need to spend all of his time with them. 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.
• If he ever wrote a book, he thought, he would present one person at a time, so that the reader wouldn’t have to worry about memorizing a lot of names.
• His father had taught him to be respectful of the elderly.
• Everyone believes the world’s greatest lie. “What the world’s greatest lie?” that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate.
• People say strange things, the boy thought. Sometimes it’s better to be with the sheep, who don’t say anything. And better still to be alone with one’s books.
• What a person’s “destiny” was. “it’s what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their destiny is.
• At that point in their lives, everything is clear, and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny.
• It’s a force that appears to be negative, but actually shows you how to realize your destiny.
• When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
• He never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.
• People learn, early in their lives, what is their reason for being, maybe that’s why they give up on it so early, too.
• If you start out by promising what you don’t even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work towards getting it.
• It’s good that you’ve learned that everything in life has its price.