Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist” has been around a while but I’ve never read it before until now. It’s a short book that tells the adventure of a young Santiago in pursuit of his treasure under the pyramids of Egypt, and tries to inspire readers to do the same, to go in pursuit of their own dreams. It’s a story that has remained popular in bookstores all these years and now I understand why. Personally, however, I’ve found it to be a bit underwhelming, perhaps because the writing wasn’t to my taste.
Nevertheless, here are some interesting lines from the book:
- That was what made traveling appeal to him – 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.
- “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.”
- The sheep had taught him something even more important; that 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 that 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.
- I know why I want to get back to my flock, he thought. I understand sheep; they’re no longer a problem, and they can be good friends. On the other hand, I don’t know if the desert can be a friend, and it’s in the desert that I have to search for my treasure.
- He still had some doubts about the decision he had made. But he was able to understand one thing; making a decision was only the beginning of things.
- “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.”
- Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.
- “Everyone has his or her own way of learning things,” he said to himself. “His way isn’t the same way as mine, nor mine as his. But we’re both in search of our Personal Legends, and I respect him for that.”
One Software Tester 