The Alchemist is the book of possibilities; the possibility of falling in love, the possibility of miracles happenings; the possibility of signs pushing you forward in your onward journey towards realizing your destiny and the possibility of living life on your own sweet terms!
The masterpiece of author Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist has been translated into 56 languages and had sold in more than 150 countries. Hold your breath; more than 70 million people all over the world had bought The Alchemist so far.
Personally, I must have bought at least a couple of hundred copies of The Alchemist and had distributed them among the faces I had cared for. There is something magical about the book, which is endearingly simple, yet highly complicated and amazingly, the complicated simplicity is what captures our imagination!
The Alchemist narrates the life of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. To conquer his yearning, he travels from his home in Spain to the markets of Tangiers and into the Egyptian desert, where a spectacular encounter with the Alchemist awaits him.
Santiago lives his life and we learn the lessons:
- Santiago meets various people and we gain the wisdom from them all
- Santiago falls in love with the desert girl and we feel the tenderness in our hearts
- Santiago gains his treasure and we gain happiness and joy!
When a writer can evoke such strong feelings in us for his character(s), he becomes Paulo Coelho and his book becomes The Alchemist!
Some pearls of wisdom from the Alchemist are as follows:
- “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it!”
- “…This payment goes well beyond my generosity”, the monk responded.
- “Don't say that again. Life might be listening, and give you less the next time.”
- “…When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.”
- “…When we love, we always strive to become better than we are.”
- “It's not often that money saves a person's life.”
- “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
- “…Then you'll die in the midst of trying to realize your destiny. That's a lot better than dying like millions of other people, who never even knew what their destinies were.”
- “Your eyes show the strength of your soul.”
- “Every search begins with the beginner's luck. And every search ends with the victor's being severely tested.”
- “…The fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.”
- “…Men always live their lives based on the future.”
- “…There was a language in the world which everyone understood…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.”
- “The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.”
- “There is a force that wants you to realize your destiny; it whets your appetite with a taste of success”.
- “It's the simple things in life that are the most extra-ordinary.”
The book Alchemist is the poetry in prose, verses in words and knowledge and experience presented in a capsular form! The Alchemist had made the words like dreams, journey, signs, destiny, happiness, intuition, miracles and love as an achievable and a possibility language!
