Paulo Coelho Quotes

I've learned that life is very tricky business: Each person needs to find what they want to do in life and not be dissuaded when people question them.

Life's too short to be shoehorned into a box that isn't for you.

I can build a happy life only on the foundation of my own nature.

It shouldn't matter what anyone else thinks. Life is not easy. The road to happiness is not a path well trotted. You have to find your own path to enlightenment.

I had been living the life that society tends to dictate for women of a certain age. You marry the person who asks you, even though he may or may not be the best one for you. Around the time that I got divorced, I had an epiphany that there is no blue ribbon or gold medal for living someone else's life, for fulfilling someone else's dreams. It's doesn't make you happy. You just end up with a life that's not yours.

Life is too short to be living somebody else's dream.

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.

I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier.

Success in any endeavor depends on the degree to which it is an expression of your true self.

Everyone's path is different. It's not always about money - sometimes it's about the journey.

I think everybody needs to find out who they are and who their, like, inner superhero is, or who you like to be. The world would be a better place if everyone was doing what the hell they wanted to do and being who they wanted to be.

I cannot be anyone else but Memphis. I tried that, and I was not happy with myself.

Be yourself, find out what you love, find out what you really want to do, and go do it. And don't depend on people who don't have your best interests at heart.

I'd like them to see that those things that set us apart or make us different can be wonderful contributions to the world around us. I'd like them to see that size and color are irrelevant to the dreams we envision for ourselves. And I'd also love for them to see that life is a journey, and every step of the way, we can learn something and become stronger and wiser.

Follow your own particular dreams. We are handed a life by peers, parents and society, you can do that or follow your own dreams. Life is short, be a dreamer but be a practical person.

There is nothing more beautiful than finding your course as you believe you bob aimlessly in the current. And wouldn't you know that your path was there all along, waiting for you to knock, waiting for you to become. This path does not belong to your parents, your teachers, your leaders, or your lovers. Your path is your character defining itself more and more every day.

The way to choose happiness is to follow what is right and real and the truth for you. You can never be happy living someone else's dream. Live your own. And you will for sure know the meaning of happiness.

We're not always in the position that we want to be at. We're constantly growing, we're constantly making mistakes, we're constantly trying to express ourselves and trying to actualize our dreams.

To be true to ourselves, however, is not an easy task. We must break free of the seductions of society and live life on our own terms, under our own values and aligned with our original dreams. We must tap our hidden selves; explore the deep-seated, unseen hopes, desires, strengths and weaknesses that make us who we are. We must understand where we have been and where we are going.

Real Dreams don't require you to abandon your family, quit your job, and move to Tahiti with your paintbrush. They just require that you search your soul for that deep dream you put aside-and go for it. And watch your life light up.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple-tree or oak. Shall he turn his spring into summer? If the condition of things which we were made for is not yet, what were any reality which we can substitute? We will not be shipwrecked on a vain reality.

A true desire is not to have but to be. We are whole creatures in potential, and the true purpose of desire is to unfold that wholeness, to become what we can be.

The formula of happiness and success is just, being actually yourself, in the most vivid possible way you can.

Would you rather live your life according to the approval of others or aligned with your truth and your dreams?

You may have success in life, but then just think of it - what kind of life was it? What good was it - you've never done the thing you wanted to do in all your life. I always tell my students, go where your body and soul want to go. When you have the feeling, then stay with it, and don't let anyone throw you off.