Paulo Coelho on motivation and goals

To live is to experience things, not sit around pondering the meaning of life.

We must never forget that spiritual experience is above all a practical experience of love. And with love, there are no rules.

Solitude is not the absence of Love, but its complement… Solitude is not the absence of company, but the moment when our soul is free to speak to us and help us decide what to do with our life.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Do, or do not. There is no ‘try.’

Never give in⁠—never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Winston Churchill1874–1965Speech given at Harrow School, Harrow, England, October 29, 1941. Quoted in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, 2008, p. 23