The Alchemist- Paulo Coelho

What's your favorite book? Mine has to be ' The Alchemist' by Paolo Coelho. I have read this book about 10 times and I know I will read it again. It's a book that always teaches me something.From beginning to end the author takes you to a journey that helps you to realize that life is a wonderful journey full of surprises. If you haven't read it, I strongly recommend it.

Here are a few quotes from it:

-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. But that’s the way it is.”
“Treasure is uncovered by the force of flowing water, and it is buried by the same currents,” said the old man.

-It's a book that says the same thing almost all the other books in the world say," continued the old man (Melchizedek). "It describes people's inability to choose their own destinies. And it ends up saying that everyone believes the world's greatest lie." "What's the world's greatest lie?" the boy asked, completely surprised. "It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie."

-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.

-The problem is that they (the sheep) don't even realize that they're walking a new road every day. They don't see that the fields are new and the seasons change. All they think about is food and water. Maybe we're all that way, the boy mused.

-Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.

-In the long run, what people think about shepherds and bakers becomes more important for them than their own destinies.

-It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.

-Making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.

-The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity.