I'm not doing anything, and yet I'm also doing the most important thing a man can do: I'm listening to what I needed to hear from myself.
As he looked up at the clouds or down at the precipice, he realized that this woman was the most important thing in his life; that she was the explanation, the sole reason for the existence of those rocks, that sky, that winter. If she were not there with him, it wouldn't matter if all the angels of heaven came flying down to comfort him--Paradise would make no sense.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote illustrates the deep emotional connection one can have with a loved one, making everything else in life seem insignificant without them.
In this quote, the author captures the essence of profound love and attachment, implying that a person's significance can overshadow all external beauty and wonder. It suggests that true happiness and meaning in life stem from our relationships, and without the presence of that special someone, even the most magnificent sights would hold no value. The speaker's reflections reveal that love is not only central but is the very lens through which we perceive and appreciate the world around us.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a wedding speech to emphasize the importance of love in a marriage.
More from Paulo Coelho
All quotes →Each stone, each bend cries welcome to him. He identifies with the mountains and the streams, he sees something of his own soul in the plants and the animals and the birds of the field.
We need to clear our minds of bad thoughts.
Having the courage to take the steps we always wanted to take is the only way of showing that we trust in God.
The fool who loves giving advice on our garden never tends his own plants
Sometimes the Warrior feels as if he were living two lives at once.
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traveling is the great true love of my life
Perfect love is to feeling what perfect white is to color. Many think that white is the absence of color. It is not. It is the inclusion of all color. White is every other color that exists, combined. So, too, is love not the absence of an emotion (hatred, anger, lust, jealousy, covetousness), but the summation of all feeling. It is the sum total. The aggregate amount. The everything.
The love within us is meant to extend outward. The closer we grow to our inner light, we feel a natural urge to share it. We all long for meaningful work, some creative endeavor that will be our ministry, by which the energies within us might flow out to help heal the world.
I have never found anybody who could stand to accept the daily demonstrative love I feel in me, and give back as good as I give.
They loved each other, not driven by necessity, by the "blaze of passion" often falsely ascribed to love. They loved each other because everything around them willed it, the trees and the clouds and the sky over their heads and the earth under their feet.
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.