Paulo Coelho is one of the most famous writers of our time. His books have been on the bestseller lists for the second decade and are attracting readers' interest. The works of Paulo Coelho are practically dismantled into quotes; there is probably not a single public page on social networks where the Brazilian writer and poet is not quoted. We offer you a selection of the most famous quotes and sayings of Paulo Coelho from various works.
Reading is always prestigious, reading and quoting Paulo Coelho is also fashionable. Among the most famous works of the Brazilian writer, it is worth noting The Alchemist, 11 Minutes, Veronica Decides to Die, The Fifth Mountain, Maktub, Pilgrimage, etc. Coelho’s books have been translated into many languages, they occupied leading positions in sales not only in Brazil, they were on the bestseller lists and in the USA, France, Italy, Great Britain, Germany, Greece. The legendary book The Alchemist, published in 2009, is still the best-selling book in Brazil. In addition to short stories and novels, Paulo Coelho is the author of many Brazilian songs. In 2005, a Japanese film adaptation of the novel Veronica Decides to Die was released, and in 2009, an English film adaptation of the novel was released.
About life
If you are able to see beauty, it is only because you carry beauty within yourself. For the world is like a mirror in which everyone sees their own reflection.
The perception of the world is a reflection of the human soul.
What happened once may never happen again. But what happened twice will certainly happen a third time.
In life there are accidents, and there are patterns.
You should never give up on your dreams! Dreams feed our soul, just like food feeds our body. No matter how many times in life we have to experience disaster and see our hopes dashed, we must still continue to dream.
To dream is to feel the taste of life.
Once I found all the answers, all the questions changed.
No matter how many answers you receive, you will always find new questions.
We say the most important words in our lives silently.
Sometimes silence can speak more than a thousand words.
The meaning of my life will be the one that I myself will give to it.
There are many important things for a person, but what will become the meaning of his life is something he chooses himself.
We always know which way is the best. But we follow the more usual one.
We are afraid of change, even if we know it can lead to better things.
Sometimes you have to die to start living.
Nothing teaches you to love life more than the threat of death.
Having reached the end, people laugh at the fears that tormented them at the beginning.
What seems something scary at the beginning of the journey turns out to be a mere trifle at the end.
Just because you have been discharged from a mental hospital does not mean that you have been cured. You just became like everyone else.
Crazy people are not necessarily mentally ill, maybe they are just not like everyone else.
I began to understand that the lack of meaning in life is only my fault.
Everyone has a meaning in life, all you have to do is see it.
Quotes on the topic "Alchemy"
In 1666, in The Hague, Holland, a stranger appeared to Helvetius, physician to Prince William of Orange, and showed him a substance that, according to him, could turn lead into gold. Helvetius quietly scraped off a few crumbs and carried out the experiment. Nothing succeeded. Soon the guest returned, and Helvetius asked to give him a larger piece. The stranger complied with the request, but never returned. Helvetius repeated the experiment and got gold...
The word Alchemy (Late Latin alchemia, alchimia, alchymia) goes back through Arabic to the Greek chemaia from cheo - pour, cast, which indicates the connection of alchemy with the art of smelting and casting metals. Another interpretation is from the Egyptian hieroglyph "khmi", meaning black (fertile) land, as opposed to barren sands.
This hieroglyph represented Egypt, the place where alchemy, often called the "Egyptian art," may have originated. The term “alchemy” first appears in the manuscript of Julius Firmicus, a 4th century astrologer.
Alchemists considered the most important task to be the transformation (transmutation) of base metals into noble (valuable), which was actually the main task of chemistry until the 16th century. This idea was based on the ideas of Greek philosophy that the material world consists of one or more “primary elements”, which under certain conditions can transform into each other.
The spread of alchemy dates from the 4th to the 16th centuries, a time of development of not only “speculative” alchemy, but also practical chemistry. There is no doubt that these two branches of knowledge influenced each other. The famous German chemist Liebig wrote about alchemy that it “has never been anything other than chemistry.”
Thus, alchemy is to modern chemistry as astrology is to astronomy. The task of medieval alchemists was to prepare two mysterious substances with the help of which the desired ennoblement (transmutation) of metals could be achieved.
The most important of these two drugs, which was supposed to have the property of turning not only silver into gold, but also such metals as lead, mercury, etc., was called the philosopher's stone, the red lion, the great elixir (from the Arabic al-iksir - the philosopher's stone).
It has also been called the philosopher's egg, red tincture, panacea and elixir of life. This remedy was supposed to not only refine metals, but also serve as a universal medicine; its solution, the so-called golden drink, was supposed to heal all diseases, rejuvenate the old body and prolong life.
Another mysterious remedy, already secondary in its properties, called the white lion, white tincture, had the ability to transform all base metals into silver. Fearing that their discoveries would fall into unworthy hands and be used for evil, alchemists hid their secrets by using secret symbols for writing.
Alchemy appeared in Europe only in the 12th century. Western alchemists shared the views of Aristotle, who believed that the material world consists of primary matter in various forms. The “primary substances” were the elements - earth, air, fire and water, each of which was characterized by two qualities (from two pairs): dry - wet and hot - cold. Therefore, air (hot and wet) could be turned into fire (hot and dry) simply by drying it.
The ratio of “primary substances” and quality determined the shape of the object. Thus, it was possible to transform one form of matter into another, changing the ratio of elements. This was achieved through repeated heating, combustion, evaporation and distillation.
In the East, alchemy was associated with Taoism and the search for the elixir of immortality. There the existence of five elements was recognized: water, fire, wood, metal and earth - and two principles: yin (feminine, passive, water) and yang (male, active, fiery). Alchemists achieved success in obtaining alloys, and the distillation method laid the foundation for the production of alcohol and perfumes.
Russia also had its own alchemists. In the 17th century, alchemy was practiced by the Old Believers monks of the Vygovskaya Hermitage, located near Lake Onega. Under the patronage of the founder of the desert, Andrei Denisov, the work of the famous 13th century alchemist Raymond Lull, “The Great Art,” was translated into Russian.
True, the Old Believers were attracted not so much by the possibility of obtaining the Philosopher’s Stone, but by the “great Kabbalistic science” that explained the unity of divine creation. Lull's book was read both in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The alchemical tradition suggests that everything in the world consists of salt, mercury and sulfur (the sacred triad). Moreover, we are not talking about ordinary salt, sulfur and mercury, which can be bought in a store, but “philosophical” substances. Only by learning to prepare them from available reagents could an alchemist achieve success.
The search for hints on ways to obtain the sacred triad in treatises and experiments took the alchemist dozens of years. It is not surprising that many adherents of the Philosopher's Stone reported success when they were already very old.
There is evidence that Count Saint-Germain could synthesize pearls, could increase their size and give them a beautiful sheen. The memoirs of the court lady Madame du Hosset describe how the Count, before her eyes, corrected a defect (crack) on the pearl of Louis XV.
In connection with this incident, the count said that pearls appear in the shell as a result of illness and that he knows how to cause this illness. Modern science considers the formation of pearls to be a disease of the mollusk - but at that time they did not know about it!
Alchemists acquired their reputation as madmen, ready to throw the last coin into the furnace and mix anything for the sake of mythical gold, thanks to puffers. This is what people were called in the Middle Ages who were obsessed with the thirst for gold. They did not waste time reading ancient manuscripts, but tirelessly experimented with mixtures of various substances: they heated, dissolved and evaporated.
Often such experiments ended in failure: explosions, fires or poisoning. Puffers made their living by making poisons and love spells.
Few people know that the Egyptian queen Cleopatra practiced alchemy - she tried to obtain gold artificially. Although she is considered the author of the manuscript “Chrysopoeia,” that is, “Gold Making,” it is not mentioned anywhere how successful she was in this matter.
But it is known for certain that some of the Egyptian alchemists quite successfully mastered this craft, and in 292, the Roman Emperor Diocletian was even forced to issue a special decree to burn all manuscripts that contained recipes for producing artificial gold and silver.
And this step of his is quite understandable - after all, an excess of gold created a threat to the existing trade turnover. Not to mention the fact that, having accumulated a large amount of money, the Egyptians could well have rebelled against the Romans.
Not only books and manuscripts were destroyed at different times. Crowds of fanatics persecuted and killed scientists. Only a few of them found refuge in Byzantium.
But “Hermetic” (named after the god Hermes) science did not perish. In the 9th century, a Greek library fell into the hands of the Arabs, which contained the few surviving treatises on alchemy. The Arabs immediately appreciated the practical side of the teaching, and soon in Baghdad the production of alkalis, the distillation of vegetable oils, the crystallization and sublimation of many substances were mastered (it is from here that the well-known word “alcohol” came to us).
The idea of “treatment” also developed - the transformation of base, “sick” metals with the help of “medicine” - the Philosopher's Stone, into higher ones: gold and silver. This task became the guiding star of the alchemists. With the light hand of the Arabs, alchemists began to consider mercury, the only liquid metal, to be the “mother of metals.”
Nimble droplets of mercury, as if alive, could slip through the fingers, and covered with amalgam (by the way, also an Arabic word) - copper products rubbed with mercury became similar to silver.
In Europe, alchemy was revived only in the 11th century where there was close contact with the Arabs - in Spain and on the island of Sicily. It was here that Arabic manuscripts were first translated into Latin. The first alchemical schools also arose here. The golden age of secret science began.
Influential nobles sought friendship with alchemists - encyclopedists, naturalists, healers and astrologers, and were accepted by monarchs. They were surrounded by students and followers. There was even a certain code of conduct established.
One of the instructions says that the alchemist must be silent and not tell anyone the results of his experiments. He should live away from people, in a house where there is a good laboratory. The following recommendation was also given: “Choose the right weather and hours for work. Be patient, diligent and enduring... It’s not bad to be rich in order to acquire everything you need for work.”
The great scientists of the Middle Ages, such as Abu Ali Ibn Sina, better known to us as Avicenna, Francis Bacon, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, believed that if the Philosopher's Stone was mixed in small quantities with silver or mercury and the resulting mixture was heated, it will turn into gold.
This belief was so strong that the English king Henry VI addressed the people with a proclamation, in which he swore on the royal word that the day was near when enough gold would be obtained from his laboratories to redeem all the mortgages of his subjects.
And Charles II, in order to increase capital, created an alchemical laboratory under his bedroom, not paying any attention to the fact that explosions woke him up at night. Even in later times, Isaac Newton conducted experiments on the transmutation (transformation) of metals. And for the benefit of science: as a result of his experiments, he invented a special alloy for telescope mirrors.
Rumors about the capabilities of the owners of the Philosopher's Stone, which were fueled by reports of successful experiments, increased the fame of alchemists, and a real hunt began for them throughout Europe. Who would refuse the services of a sorcerer who makes gold? And there were many different stories about their art. Here are some of them.
At the beginning of the 14th century, the English king Edward managed to get into his service the sage and artist Raymond Lull, who promised the monarch to make 60 thousand pounds of gold from mercury in exchange for sending an armada of ships for a holy war against the infidels. The alchemist fulfilled his promise. From the resulting gold, coins were minted with the image of the king and the inscription: “Edward, King of England and France.”
But the king deceived Lull - he spent the money not on the fight against Muslims, but on a more important campaign against the French for him. These coins, called nobles, can now be seen on the stands of many museums...
In 1675, stories about the free life of alchemists at the court of Emperor Leopold I reached the monk Wenzel Seiler. He decided, having stolen the Philosopher's Stone - a certain red powder from one of his brothers, to change his seclusion in a dark cell to a career at court. As the first demonstration of his skill, the monk promised the emperor to transform a copper vessel into a golden one in front of everyone present.
With the help of miraculous powder, inarticulate muttering and theatrical gestures, he actually accomplished transmutation, which was confirmed by the royal jeweler. The alchemist also succeeded in another trick - he successfully turned ordinary tin into gold. And in this case, coins were minted from noble metal, on the reverse side of which there was the date of their issue - 1675 and the inscription: “I was transformed from tin into gold by the power of Wenzel Seiler’s powder.”
For these merits, the successful alchemist was awarded the title of royal court chemist, and a year later he was knighted and appointed, apparently with great hope for the further growth of the treasury, as master of the Bohemian mint. However, the deeds of alchemists did not always end happily. Quite the contrary. As a rule, the fates of “craftsmen” are tragic.
In the 10th century, the name of the scientist and alchemist, the creator of the treatise “The Book of the Secret of Secrets,” the scientist al-Razi, was widely known in the East. (It contained chemical reactions that were then considered a terrible secret, but are now known to any schoolchild.) The demonstration of the transformation of silver into gold ended in failure - the precious metal did not turn out.
The angry ruler, completely not listening to the alchemist’s arguments that some kind of mistake had occurred in the experiment and he could repeat it, headed towards the doors with curses. This served as a signal to the security for reprisals. The scientist, blind from the beatings, ended his days in poverty and oblivion.
As a rule, alchemists caught in deception were executed as counterfeiters. Moreover, the execution was carried out magnificently, on a gilded gallows, and the doomed were dressed in special robes strewn with sequins.
As a warning to others, in 1590 the alchemist Bragadino was hanged in Munich, having previously received large sums of money for his alleged secret of the Philosopher's Stone from the Doge of Venice and other greats of this world. To increase his authority, he boasted that Satan was his slave, and the two dogs that accompanied him everywhere were demons.
When his inability to make gold became obvious, he was executed and the dogs were shot under the gallows. Seven years later, the same fate befell Georg Honauer in Württemberg, Kronemann in Prussia, Kelttenberg in Poland, etc., etc. If the alchemist was not caught in deception, another prospect awaited him - imprisonment for refusal reveal the secret of the Philosopher's Stone. In 1483, Louis von Neus died in prison. For the same crime, the female alchemist Maria Ziegleria was burned alive in an iron cage by order of the Duke of Luxembourg. This list goes on and on.
There were many who wanted to get their hands on simpletons who were eager to get rich quickly. And this is not surprising - any business that promises profit is surrounded by a mass of charlatans. While scientists, driven by a thirst for knowledge, spent days and nights at furnaces, studying chemical reactions, others no less persistently looked for roundabout and not always honest paths to success.
Europe was flooded with a crowd of swindlers, whose bait was taken not only by simpletons, but even by educated nobles and kings. Often, the gold of alchemists turned out to be a deception - brass, tombac or bronze, although Aristotle wrote that copper, when heated with zinc or tin, forms golden-yellow alloys. "All that glitters is not gold."
There were craftsmen who obtained “silver” by adding arsenic to the copper melt. The main thing is that the base metal acquires the desired color. In other cases, it only took the dexterity of a magician to unnoticed a piece of gold to be thrown into the melt for color. How exactly to accomplish this depended on the imagination of the craftsman.
Some “gold kitchen masters” preferred to use a hollow stick to mix the melt, inside which they hid several pieces of gold, sealing them with wax. If the stick was wooden, then its lower, hollow part burned completely in the melt. In this elegant way, the material evidence itself was destroyed before anyone could have a desire to take a closer look at the “magic wand.”
In their experiments, the “goldsmiths” revealed extraordinary resourcefulness. They used crucibles with double bottoms, from which gold poured out when heated, or coals with gold hidden inside. Sometimes gold dust contributed to success - it was blown into the melt along with air pumped by a blower.
Thanks to various scoundrels from science in the 16th - 17th centuries, the famous “Hermetic science” began to decline. They began to laugh at the alchemical scientists. In 1526, a certain Atrippa wrote sarcastically to his friend:
“Glory to Thee, Lord, if there is truth in this tale, I am rich... My old friend got me seeds of gold and planted them in vessels with a long neck over my hearth, building a fire in it no hotter than the warmth of the sun. And just as a hen incubates eggs day and night, so we maintain the heat in the oven, waiting for huge golden chickens to hatch from the vessels. If everyone gets out, we will surpass Midas in wealth, or at least in the length of our ears...”
In 1610, the comedy “The Alchemist” was staged in one of the London theaters, in which the “smoky explorer of the world” in an absurd robe with long sleeves crawled out of the basement. Raising his hands to the sky, he recited to the laughter and whistles of the audience:
Now I have to make a talisman, My pearl of creation - the Philosopher's Stone... You still don't believe it? In vain! I will turn all the metal here into gold at night. And tomorrow morning I will send my servants to the tinker for tin and lead!
Naturally, at the end of the comedy, both the charlatan alchemist and his henchmen, who were about to defraud the moneybag, receive their well-deserved punishment.
The golden age of alchemy was ending. She was dying, surrounded by the “inventors” of various “elixirs of immortality” and “mysteriums”. She was seen off on her final journey with ridicule. The blow from which alchemy never recovered was dealt by Robert Boyle, who published the book “The Skeptical Chemist” in 1661, in which he convincingly debunked the doctrine of the transmutation of metals.
The practice of alchemy was cursed by the Catholic Church and prohibited in England, France, and Venice. Moreover, as always, real scientists also died innocently. This is how the French chemist Jean Barillo died, who was executed only because he studied the chemical properties of substances and had his own laboratory.
A new era has begun in the history of science, throwing off the shackles of “hermetic science.” But the accumulated experience of the alchemists was not lost. No wonder one of the greatest minds of his time, Roger Bacon, said this about alchemy:
“This is ... the science of the production of things from the elements and of all inanimate objects, both of the elements and of simple and complex liquids; about ordinary and precious stones and marbles; about gold and other metals; about sulfur, salts and vitriol; about azure, red lead and other paints; about oils and flammable bitumens and infinitely many things that are not mentioned in the books of Aristotle.”
Alchemical terms:
Hermeticism, a religious and philosophical movement of the Hellenistic era, combining elements of popular Greek philosophy, Chaldean astrology, Persian magic, and Egyptian alchemy. Represented by a significant number of works attributed to Hermes Trismegistus (the so-called “Corpus Hermeticus”, 2nd-3rd centuries).
In a broad sense, it is a complex of occult sciences (magic, astrology, alchemy). The tradition of Hermeticism was continued in the European Renaissance (M. Ficino, G. Pico della Mirandola), with C. Agrippa, Paracelsus, and influenced G. Bruno and I. Newton.
Elixir (from Arabic al-iksir - the philosopher's stone), life elixir - medieval alchemists used a fantastic drink that prolongs life and preserves youth.
Homunculus (lat. homunculus - little man), according to the ideas of medieval alchemists, is a creature similar to a person that can be obtained artificially (in a test tube). Animalculists believed that the homunculus is a small person enclosed in a spermatozoon, and when it enters the mother’s body it only increases in size.
Panacea, among alchemists, a medicine that supposedly cures all diseases [named after the ancient Greek goddess Panakeia (Panakeia - all-healing)].
About happiness and love
I love you because... “You don’t need to say anything,” the girl interrupted him. - They love because they love. Love does not accept arguments.
They don’t love for something, they love for no reason.
The strongest love is the one that is not afraid to show weakness.
Every person has weaknesses, the one who knows how to show them is most likely in love...
Happiness sometimes comes to us as grace, but much more often it is victory and overcoming.
Happiness is like the finish line of a competition with difficulties.
It’s enough for me to love him, mentally be with him and decorate this beautiful city with his affection, his words, the echo of his steps...
Those who love can be close even mentally.
Misfortune is a test, not a punishment.
Happiness is a reward for passing trials.
Love is the great madness of a man and a woman.
When men and women fall in love, they automatically become mad.
Love is perhaps a tougher test than standing face to face with a warrior who has aimed an arrow straight at your heart.
The worst wound is not from an enemy in war, but from the betrayal of a loved one.
Love can survive only when there is hope, however distant, that we will be able to conquer the one we love!
Love is a feeling that lives on hopes.
Only he is happy who is able to spread happiness.
Happy are those who give happiness to others.
Love is full of traps and traps. When she wants to make herself known, she shows only her light, and hides and hides the shadows generated by it.
If love immediately showed all the traps, then no one would fall in love...
Love cannot stop a person from following his destiny. If this happens, it means that love was not true, not the kind that speaks the Universal Language.
True love is destiny, so it cannot interfere with it.
