Paulo Coelho

He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend must have a long head or a very short creed.
Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation.

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.

Love alone can unite living beings so as to complete and fulfill them… for it alone joins them by what is deepest in themselves. All we need is to imagine our ability to love developing until it embraces the totality of men and the earth.

Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves.
Love is the affinity which links and draws together the elements of the world… Love, in fact, is the agent of universal synthesis.

Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.

The world is round so that friendship may encircle it.

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

We are one, after all, you and I. Together we suffer, together exist, and forever will recreate each other.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ (May 1, 1881 – April 10, 1955) was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest, a paleontologist and geologist

“Aku mencintaimu karena segenap alam semesta bersatu membantuku menemukanmu” – Novel Sang Alkemis

“Hanya ada satu hal yang membuat mimpi tak mungkin diraih: perasaan takut gagal” – Novel Sang Alkemis

“Lupakanlah masa depan, dan jalanilah setiap hari sesuai ajaran. Percayalah bahwa Tuhan mencintai hamba-hambaNya. Tiap-tiap hari pada dirinya membawa keabadian” – Novel Sang Alkemis

“Dan pada saat engkau mengiginkan sesuatu, seluruh jagat raya bersatu padu untuk membantumu meraihnya” – Novel Sang Alkemis

“Kau harus belajar menanggung beberapa penderitaan dan kesedihan, sebab penderitaan dan kesedihan akan menjadikanmu orang yang lebih baik” – Novel Seperti Sungai yang mengalir

“Kalau kita berusaha menjadi lebih baik, segala sesuatu di sekitar kita akan ikut menjadi lebih baik” – Novel Sang Alkemis

“Tuhan telah memberiku alasan untuk hidup, bekerja, dan berjuang di lembah air mata ini” – Novel Sang Penyihir dari Portobello

“Yang membuat hidup ini menarik adalah kemungkinan untuk mewujudkan impian menjadi kenyataan” – Novel Sang Alkemis

“Katakan pada hatimu, rasa takut akan penderitaan justru lebih menyiksa daripada penderitaan itu sendiri. Dan tak ada hati yang menderita saat mengejar impian-impiannya, sebab setiap detik pencarian itu bisa diibaratkan pertemuan dengan Tuhan dan Keabadian” – Novel Sang Alkemis

“Rasa takut akan penderitaan justru lebih menyiksa daripada penderitaan itu sendiri” – Novel Sang Alkemis

“Menumpuk cinta membawa keberuntungan, menumpuk kebencian membawa bencana. Setiap orang yang gagal mengenali masalah sama saja membiarkan pintu terbuka bagi masuknya tragedi.”-Kitab Suci Ksatria Cahaya.**

“At the beginning of our life and again when we get old, we need the help and affection of others. Unfortunately, between these two periods of our life, when we are strong and able to look after ourselves, we don’t appreciate the value of affection and compassion.  As our own life begins and ends with the need for affection, wouldn’t it be better if we gave compassion and love to others while we are strong and capable?”

The above words were said by the present Dalai Lama. Really, it is very curious to see that we are proud of our emotional independence.  Evidently, it is not quite like that: we continue needing others our entire life, but it is a “shame” to show that, so we prefer to cry in hiding. And when someone asks us for help, that person is considered weak and incapable of controlling his feelings.

 There is an unwritten rule saying that “the world is for the strong”, that “only the fittest survive.” If it were like that, human beings would never have existed, because they are part of a species that needs to be protected for a long period of time (specialists say that we are only capable of surviving on our own after nine years of age, whereas a giraffe takes only six to eight months, and a bee is already independent in less than five minutes).

We are in this world, I, for my part, continue – and will always continue – depending on others.  I depend on my wife, my friends and my publishers. I depend even on my enemies, who help me to be always trained in the use of the sword.

Clearly, there are moments when this fire blows in another direction, but I always ask myself: where are the others? Have I isolated myself too much? Like any healthy person, I also need solitude and moments of reflection.

But I cannot get addicted to that.

Emotional independence leads to absolutely nowhere – except to a would-be fortress, whose only and useless objective is to impress others.

Emotional dependence, in its turn, is like a bonfire that we light.

In the beginning, relationships are difficult. In the same way that fire is necessary to put up with the disagreeable smoke – which makes breathing hard, and causes tears to pour down one’s face. However, once the fire is alight, the smoke disappears and the flames light up everything around us – spreading warmth, calm, and possibly making an ember pop out to burn us, but that is what makes a relationship interesting, isn’t that true?

I began this column quoting a Nobel Peace Prize winner about the importance of human relationships. I am ending with Professor Albert Schweitzer, physician and missionary, who received the same Nobel prize in 1952.

“All of us know a disease in Central Africa called sleeping sickness. What we need to know is that there is a similar disease that attacks the soul – and which is very dangerous, because it catches us without being noticed. When you notice the slightest sign of indifference and lack of enthusiasm for your similar, be on the alert!”

“The only way to take precautions against this disease is to understand that the soul suffers, and suffers a lot, when we make it live superficially. The soul likes things that are beautiful and profound”.

I arrive in Madrid at eight o’clock in the morning. I will only be here a few hours, so it’s not worth phoning friends and arranging to see them. I decide to go for a walk alone in my favourite places, and I end up sitting smoking a cigarette on a bench in the Retiro Park.

‘You look miles away,’ says an old man, joining me on the bench.

‘Oh, I’m here,’ I say, ‘but I’m sitting on this same bench with a painter friend of mine, Anastasio Ranchal, 24 years ago in 1986. We are both watching my wife, Christina, who has had a bit too much to drink and is trying to dance the flamenco.’

‘Enjoy your memories,’ says the old man.

‘But don’t forget that memory is like salt: the right amount brings out the flavour in food, too much ruins it. If you live in the past all the time, you’ll find yourself with no present to remember.’

Diario de Noticias, Portugal

“Primeiro compraram, depois queimaram”, escreveu Paulo Coelho na sua conta na plataforma Twitter, ao comentar um vídeo em que um casal de apoiantes de Jair Bolsonaro rasga e queima um livro do escritor brasileiro.

“E o bigodinho do cara [vocabulário informal usado no Brasil para descrever pessoas do sexo masculino] não deixa esconder a origem da ideia”, acrescentou, numa alusão histórica à figura de Adolf Hitler.

Não. Primeiro compraram, depois queimaram. E o bigodinho do cara não deixa esconder a origem da ideia… https://t.co/AYZ9V3dzKW

– Paulo Coelho (@paulocoelho) September 29, 2020

Vídeos de pessoas a queimar livros de sucesso do autor brasileiro, como O Alquimista, publicado em 1988 e com mais de 150 milhões de exemplares vendidos em 70 idiomas, proliferaram nos últimos dias entre os seguidores do presidente brasileiro.

Em quase todos os vídeos, Paulo Coelho é acusado de ser “comunista”, “socialista” e “antipatriota”, e é convidado a ir viver “em Cuba ou na Venezuela” devido à sua postura crítica sobre o Governo de Bolsonaro.

Paulo Coelho ri na sua mansão pois o dinheiro da venda do livro já caiu no bolso faz tempo! https://t.co/uwHx873t60

– Mari (@maristrassximr) September 29, 2020

Paulo Coelho observou noutra mensagem no Twitter: “A queima de livros se refere à destruição ritual pelo fogo e geralmente vem da oposição cultural, religiosa ou política aos materiais em questão. A queima de livros pelo regime nazista em 10 de maio de 1933 é o mais famoso da história.”

Book burning:ritual destruction by fire of books,and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or political opposition to the materials in question.
Below: Hitler supporters, May 1933
MY 2 PREVIOUS POSTS: Bolsonaro supporters, Sept 2020 pic.twitter.com/i09ulhz8MS

– Paulo Coelho (@paulocoelho) September 29, 2020

Paulo Coelho nasceu no Rio de Janeiro em 1947 e mora há anos em Genebra (Suíça), onde já estabeleceu a sua residência.

Desde 1982, quando Arquivos do Inferno, seu primeiro livro, foi publicado, o escritor escreveu cerca de 20 títulos.

Em 2002, Paulo Coelho foi nomeado membro da Academia Brasileira de Letras e desde meados de 2018, quando já havia a sensação de que as eleições daquele ano seriam vencidas por Jair Bolsonaro, que o escritor se posiciona contra o avanço dos movimentos de extrema-direita no Brasil e no mundo.

NOTA OFICIAL DO PEN CLUBE DO BRASIL   EM SOLIDARIEDADE AO ESCRITOR PAULO COELHO

O PEN Clube Internacional – seção Brasil, cumpre o dever de vir a público para se solidarizar com o associado Paulo Coelho, por conta de agressão intolerável de que não apenas ele acaba de ser vítima se não a literatura brasileira e o próprio país.

O fato de ter seus livros queimados em público por um casal que se diz em defesa da Federação Brasileira e de seu Presidente pelo fato (???) de que o mais reconhecido escritor brasileiro teria criticado posições adotadas pelo Presidente Bolsonaro.

O PEN Clube do Brasil, único órgão internacional de que dispomos em defesa irrestrita tanto da liberdade de expressão de quem escreve e emite opiniões, quanto de seus escritores e jornalistas, não apenas presta solidariedade ao seu mais traduzido escritor como repudia com veemência e asco a insanidade histórica do ato de queimar livros impensável violência aplicada ao se abrirem as trevas nazistas no sangrento ano de 1933.

Tanto a solidariedade a Paulo Coelho, integrante da Academia Brasileira de Letras e de clubes literários de todo planeta, quanto o gesto de usar a bastardia de tal censura, cujas origens medievais são sobejamente reconhecidas, não podem, em nenhum momento serem ignorados por nossa sede em Londres e por seus duzentos clubes associados nos cinco continentes.

Ricardo Cravo Albin

Presidente do PEN Clube do Brasil