Paulo Coelho Quotes

Maybe America hates me.

Most people's lives are nothing more than pointlessly frantic activity used as a psychological defense against their own impotence and fear.

People can be in a prison of their own mind. [There are] people who don't have their hearts open to other people's ideas, and can't listen to other people's ideas without feeling like they're being slapped in the face. Those people are more in a prison.

When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. They become rigid and defensive, and their self stops growing.

When people looked at him they had the feeling of being shut out. He did not shut them out. He shut himself in.

Fear, anger, stubbornness, and distrust portray themselves as your rescuers. Actually these energies only make you more closed off. Tell yourself: Nobody ever solved a situation by panicking; no one ever solved a situation by refusing to hear new answers; no one solved a situation by shutting down.

What did exclusivity ever have to offer but a distorted, unrealistic view of the world? People who stuck only to their own kind were scared people.

I wondered how many people there were in the world who suffered, and continued to suffer, because they could not break out from their own web of shyness and reserve, and in their blindness and folly built up a great distorted wall in front of them that hid the truth.

For me, writing [was] a question of survival...I could not trust anyone, even my family. The atmosphere was so poisoned. People even in your own family could turn you in.

I feel like people who are guarded and shut off, I feel like they should have to wear a button that says, "shut down", "guarded" or something.

Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.

I shouldn't leave the house or interact with people ever.

It's not living alone if you keep a rifle under the bed.

Donald Trump's world view is that it's a dangerous, miserable place, people are out to get him, and he needs to strike them first.

A community which refuses to welcome - whether through fear, weariness, insecurity, a desire to cling to comfort, or just because it is fed up with visitors - is dying spiritually.

A fence can be protective around your family - a familial fence. Then, there are the people who only know how to take, to abuse, to offend and they build fences to keep you out. They don't have time to talk, they don't have kind words, they only talk about themselves. They never give an olive branch or forgiveness - they create a fence because of their personality or behavior and they want to create a barrier to keep people out.

Lots of people still live with fears about anything. It can be lots of different things. One of the hardest things to do is to be present and open and clear about who you are and what you stand for. We all have issues with that.

I'm really afraid of getting hit by cars, like terrified of it. I'm terrified of crossing streets. I'm also very accident-prone...I think people aim for me.

Hell is other people's fantasies.

It's difficult to talk to people who whisper even at home, afraid of Americans eavesdropping on them. It's not a figure of speech, not a joke, I'm serious.

I didn't like being alone. Being alone was slightly better than having to deal with people, that's all. Or so I'd convinced myself.

Yes, to me that's one of the most compelling fears in film noir and the psychological thriller genre - that fear of conspiracy. It's definitely something that I have a fear of - not being in control of your own life. I think that's something people can relate to, and those genres are most successful when they derive the material from genuine fears that people have.

I'm not crazy and we're not alone. I told them, but the only two people who ever believed me were the schizophrenic abducted by aliens and his invisible friend. I told them!

People always fear what they don't understand, Evangeline. History proves that.

I saw people who were hostile; they had felt so much hurt that hostility was their only defense against being crushed again.