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.
Paulo CoelhoRead
fanaticism is the only way to put an end to the doubts that constantly trouble the human soul.
Interpretation
Fanaticism provides a resolute belief that dispels doubts and insecurity.
In this quote, Paulo Coelho suggests that fanaticism can serve as a powerful antidote to the uncertainties that often plague the human spirit. By embracing an extreme and unwavering belief, individuals may find relief from the anxiety of doubt, enabling a more decisive pursuit of their convictions, albeit at the risk of losing perspective and open-mindedness.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the impact of extreme beliefs on personal identity.
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.
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.
Surfing's one of the few sports that you look ahead to see what's behind.
Most children tell themselves stories in which they figure as powerful figures, enjoying the pleasures not only of the adult world as they conceive it but of a world of wonders unlike dull reality.
No form of liberty is worth a darn [sic] which doesn't give us the right to do wrong now and then.
It was the first and most striking characteristic of Socrates never to become heated in discourse, never to utter an injurious or insulting word -- on the contrary, he persistently bore insult from others and thus put an end to the fray.
Self-discovery is above all the realization that we are alone: it is the opening of an impalpable, transparent wall-that of our consciousness-between the world and ourselves.
One feels inclined to say that the intention that man should be 'happy' is not included in the plan of Creation.' . . . We are so made that we can derive intense enjoyment only from a contrast and very little from a state of things.
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