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
But time, as well as healing all wounds, taught me something strange too: that it's possible to love more than one person in a lifetime. I remarried. I'm very happy with my new wife, and I can't imagine living without her. This, however, doesn't mean that I have to renounce all my past experiences, as long as I'm careful not to compare my two lives. You can't measure love the way you can the length of a road or the height of a building.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Love can exist for multiple people throughout one's life without negating past experiences.
In this quote, Paulo Coelho reflects on the transformative nature of love and how it can evolve over time. He acknowledges that while one can love deeply and fully with different partners, it is important to cherish past relationships without diminishing current ones. Coelho highlights the uniqueness of each love and warns against the trivialization of emotions by comparing them to measurable entities.
Themes
LoveLifeExperiencesRelationshipsEmotions
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a wedding speech to emphasize the beauty of loving again.
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
Until I lose my soul and lie Blind to the beauty of the earth, Deaf though shouting wind goes by, Dumb in a storm of mirth; Until my heart is quenched at length And I have left the land of men, Oh, let me love with all my strength Careless if I am loved again.
Sara TeasdaleRead
Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love?' These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will be many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.
Henri NouwenRead
He smoked a cigarette, standing in the dark and listening to her undress. She made sea sounds; something flapped like a sail; there was the creak of ropes; then he heard the wave-against-a-wharf smack of rubber on flesh. Her call for him to hurry was a sea-moan, and when he lay beside her, she heaved, tidal, moon-driven.
Nathanael WestRead
Of all the things you must earn in life, God's unending affection is not one of them. You have it.
Max LucadoRead
Love is responsibility of an I for a You: in this consists what cannot consist in any feeling - the equality of all lovers.
Martin BuberRead
Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.
Dalai LamaRead