You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.

The wise are wise only because they love. The fool are fools only because they think they can understand love.

Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.

Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.

No one can lie, no one can hide anything, when he looks directly into someone's eyes.

You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.

Beauty is the greatest seducer of man.

You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It's just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.

You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people's opinions.

Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere.

Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.

When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream.

One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

We have to stop and be humble enough to understand that there is something called mystery.

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.

Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.

Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.

If you start by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work towards getting it.

Life was always a matter of waiting for the right moment to act.

About the idea of a clash between cultures, between civilisations, I don't believe in it. It's something some political leaders tried to use, and that the media tried and are still trying to sell us, in order to simplify the world and their work.

All women have a perception much more developed than men. So all women somehow, being repressed for so many millennia, they ended up by developing this sixth sense and contemplation and love. And this is something that we have a hard time to accept as part of our society.

Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.

Elegance is usually confused with superficiality, fashion, lack of depth. This is a serious mistake: human beings need to have elegance in their actions and in their posture because this word is synonymous with good taste, amiability, equilibrium and harmony.

Every day I try to be in communication with the universe in an unconscious way.

Everybody has a creative potential and from the moment you can express this creative potential, you can start changing the world.

Everybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament; it's how you deal with your life, with your surroundings.

Everything for me is sacred, beginning with earth, but also going to things made by man.

Everything is possible, from angels to demons to economists and politicians.

However happy people say they are, nobody is satisfied: we always have to be with the prettiest woman, buy a bigger house, change cars, desire what we do not have.

I always was a rich person because money's not related to happiness.

I am 100 per cent Virgo, stubborn, over-organised, slightly abstracted from the rest of the world.

I am a Catholic because I choose to be a Catholic. And then I go to the Mass because I choose. It is out of my free will.

I am a Catholic.

I am not a self-help writer. I am a self-problem writer. When people read my books, I provoke some things. I cannot justify my work. I do my work; it is up to them to classify it, to judge.

I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfil our destiny, but our fate is sealed.

I cry very easily. It can be a movie, a phone conversation, a sunset - tears are words waiting to be written.

I don't go to parties in general.

I don't set out to write about spirituality; I am free to do something different every time.

I don't try to control my days.

I had this dream to become a writer since I was a teenager.

I hate to be smart.

I have been practicing archery for a long time; a bow and arrow helps me to unwind.

I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the art of patience and to respect the fury of nature.

I lived in a dictatorship in Brazil, and I was arrested three times. I felt in my flesh what it is to live under such a regime and experience deprivation of freedom.

I love almost everything about my work except conferences. I am too shy in front of an audience. But I love signings and having eye contact with a reader who already knows my soul.

I never say I am a guru.

I talk to my readers on social networking sites, but I never tell them what the book is about. Writing is lonely, so from time to time I talk to them on the Internet. It's like chatting at a bar without leaving your office. I talk with them about a lot of things other than my books.