Paulo Coelho, "By the River Piedra..."

Quotes from "By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept"

• "I've paid a considerable price for the little I have gained. I've been forced to deny myself many things I've wanted, to abandon so many roads that were open to me. I've sacrificed my dreams in the name of a larger dream-- a peaceful soul. I didn't want to give up that peace" (41).
• "I was tired of playing the child and acting the way many of my friends did -- the ones who are afraid that love is impossible without even knowing what love is. If I stayed like that, I would miss out on everything good that these few days with him might offer" (47).
• "We think so much about money and our plans for acquiring it that we discover we are alive only when our days on earth are practically done. And then it's too late. ... [But] I am just like everyone else who listens to their heart; a person who is enchanted by the mystery of life. Who is open to miracles, who experiences joy and enthusiasm for what they do. [Yes,] there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggle for your dreams than to be defeated without ever even knowing what you're fighting for" (50). 
• "I could see in his eyes the thousands of times that he had imagined this moment and the scenes he had constructed about us. I wanted to say that yes, he was welcome, that my heart had won the battle. I wanted to tell him how much I loved him and how badly I wanted him at the moment. But I was silent.  I witnessed, as if in a dream, his inner conflict. I could see that he was wondering whether I'd reject him again, that he was thinking about his fear of losing me, and about the hard words he had heard at other, similar times-- because we all have such experiences, and they leave scars" (146).
• "We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that yours is the only path" (164).