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
Love fills everything. It cannot be desired because it is an end in itself. It cannot betray because it has nothing to do with possession. It cannot be held prisoner because it is a river and will overflow its banks. Anyone who tries to imprison love will cut off the spring that feeds it, and the trapped water will grow stagnant.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Love is an abundant force that cannot be controlled or contained.
This quote by Paulo Coelho emphasizes the nature of love as a free-flowing and boundless emotion. It suggests that love exists for its own sake, cannot be owned or possessed, and that any attempts to limit or control it will ultimately lead to its deterioration, much like water that becomes stagnant when trapped. Coelho uses the imagery of a river to illustrate love's intrinsic quality of overflow and the inherent danger of trying to confine it.
Themes
LoveFreedomEmotionAbundanceNature
In practice
Example use cases
During a wedding ceremony to emphasize the importance of unconditional love.
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.
Paulo CoelhoRead
We need to clear our minds of bad thoughts.
Paulo CoelhoRead
Having the courage to take the steps we always wanted to take is the only way of showing that we trust in God.
Paulo CoelhoRead
The fool who loves giving advice on our garden never tends his own plants
Paulo CoelhoRead
Sometimes the Warrior feels as if he were living two lives at once.
Paulo CoelhoRead
Similar quotes
I love you and I always will and I am sorry. What a useless word.
Ernest HemingwayRead
At 14 I discovered girls. At that time dancing was the only way you could put your arm around the girl. Dancing was courtship.
Gene KellyRead
my love had grown one with my soul; it became darker, but did not go out
Mikhail LermontovRead
Thank you, Mr. Rochester, for your great kindness. I am strangely glad to get back again to you: and wherever you are is my home—my only home.
Charlotte BronteRead
Children know by instinct that hell is an absence of love, and they can pick out theirs without missing.
Flannery O'ConnorRead
God, to redeem us at the deepest portion of our nature - the urge to love and be loved - must reveal His nature in an incredible and impossible way. He must reveal it at a cross.
E. Stanley JonesRead