Quotes from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

www.bill.tubbs.name/thealchemist.html

The Alchemist

It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting. (p11)

What's the world's greatest lie? 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. (p18)

The boy didn't know what a person's "destiny" was. It's what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their destiny is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny. (p22)

And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. (p23)

People learn early in their lives what is their reason for being. (p25)

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. (p71)

Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life. (p77)

When you want something with all your heart, that's when you are closest to the Soul of the World. It's always a positive force. (p82)

The alchemists spent years in their laboratories, observing the fire that purified the metals. They spent so much time close to the fire that gradually they gave up the vanities of the world. They discovered that the purification of the metals had led to a purification of themselves (p85)

"I learned that the world has a soul, and that whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of things. I learned that many alchemists realized their destinies, and wound up discovering the Soul of the World, the Philosopher's Stone, and the Elixir of Life. But above all, I learned that these things are all so simple they could be written on the surface of an emerald." (p87)

I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living now. (p88/89)

Because people become fascinated with pictures and words, and wind up forgetting the Language of the World. (p91)

In his pursuit of the dream, he was being constantly subjected to tests of his persistence and courage. So he could not be hasty, nor impatient. If he pushed forward impulsively, he would fail to see the signs and omens left by God along his path. (p93)

When you are in love, things make even more sense, he thought. (p105)

Courage is the quality most essential to understanding the Language of the World. (p117)

Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure. You've got to find the treasure, so that everything you have learned along the way can make sense. (p122)

"There is only one way to learn," the alchemist answered. "It's through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey. (p132)

The wise men understood that this natural world is only an image and a copy of paradise. The existence of this world is simply a guarantee that there exists a world that is perfect. God created the world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and the marvels of this wisdom. That's what I mean by action." (p133)

All you have to do is contemplate a simple grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation. Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World, and it will one day return there. (p134)

People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them. (p136)

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity.

Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him. (p138)

Every search begins with beginners luck and ends with the victor's being severely tested. (p139)

The boy and his heart had become friends, and neither was capable now of betraying the other. (p141)

When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there's no need at all to understand what's happening, because everything happens within you. (p155)

AN BUTANDING

Pating! Pating! Pating!

An kurahaw kan namamangka

Nakig-kig an par-iriba

Sa nakiling ninda sa ibaba.

Natakot sinda ta uya pa

Sa dagat tangod ninda

Subrang kurub-kutob kan daghan

Parayo an saindang pagsagwan

An pating nagtampisaw

Sa dagat na malinaw

Dai minarayo sainda

Sa banka nakipag-karera

Nahiling kan ibang parasira

Parami nag usyoso man sinda

Nasiguro na nahiling Butanding

Ibang klase nin Pating.

Maboot an butanding na sira

Minadayo an mga turista,

An butanding mahiling sana

Butanding pinag-kurugos-kugos pa

Sinurat ni:

F. Balgemino

ANG ALAK

An alak sarong klase nin inumon

Kung dakol an ininom mo nakakabuyong

An alak gamit na kaidtong panahon

Kung may kasalan o ibang okasyon,

Dakol na klase nin alak an nagigibo

May alak na hali sa tubo,

Sa niyog, sa duga nin prutas

Asin sa bunga nin ubas

May alak na sa namit makusugon

Ito an alak na madali maka buyong;

May alak na gamit sa pagluto

“Fruit Cake”, halong alak paborito,

An alak na gamit sa misa kan Padi

Alak na pigiinom sabay an pangadye,

Dai ka matagayan ta ini bawal

Iniinom na alak para sana sa altar

Kadakal na pangyayari na dulot kan alak

Mga parabuyong may napapahamak

Sa alak may nagiiriwal

Kung minsan naresulta sa pagkakatigbak

Sinurat Ni:

F. Balgemino

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864 - 1901). In the Circus - The Clown Footit as Animal Tamer. 1899. Crayon and black chalk.

The Flaming Lips
At War With the Mystics
(Warner Bros.)

At 45, Lips frontman Wayne Coyne has seen as much ugliness as anybody of his generation. Yet alt rock’s Captain Kangaroo keeps it cheerily surreal, a feat more impressive for how his musical positivity seems -- like some sci-fi monster -- to feed off of horror. The lushly affirmational The Soft Bulletin was inspired by watching his now-clean bandmate Steven Drozd disappear into heroin addiction. And as Coyne suggests in the notes to the retrospective Finally the Punk Rockers Are Taking Acid, he owes his aesthetic worldview in part to an LSD freak-out at a fast-food drive-through window.

So you’d expect that, at this fucked-up moment in history, he’d have plenty of fuel. He does, and while At War With the Mystics is billed as a political record, it’s more concerned with what happens in the head than in the streets. The money shot is the ecstatically strange "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" -- not a Karen O tribute (I don’t think), but a handclapping, munchkin-chanting, Peter Frampton talk-box-rocking Roman candle that wonders how absolutely corrupt anyone with absolute power would be, even you. This is a recurring issue: The single "The W.A.N.D.," all Stooges guitar hurl and B-movie space noise, declares, "We got the power now, motherfuckers -- that’s where it belongs!" You wonder: Does it?

At War is gnarlier and a bit less tuneful than the group’s previous two CDs. But the arrangements, and Dave Fridmann’s signature blend of clarity and overmodulation, remain intricately weird, from the fluty instrumental prog rock of "The Wizard Turns On…" to the Marvin Gaye–meets–Eddie Rabbitt soul of "Mr. Ambulance Driver." The latter, a ballad about waiting for help after an accident, has a touching video, in which a shirtless kid pop-locks happily while displaying his crippled left hand, which was mutilated in a car crash. It sort of sums up what the Lips have grown into: a power-of-positive-thinking cult for post-punk realists. Tony Robbins, watch your back.