Written by Paulo Coelho in 1993, The Alchemist is an epic story about overcoming obstacles in order to find one's destiny. The protagonist is a boy named Santiago who, at first, is content to travel around Spain as a simple shepherd. But a series of dreams and "chance" encounters launch him on a quest to discover his true calling in life - one that most people never even have the courage to undertake. Over the course of his journey, he travels hundreds, if not thousands of miles, and reaches an extraordinary emotional maturity.

I'm not going to say much more about the book because I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't read it. But it's really good. And it's a quick read, yet it's chock full of great quotes...

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"When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too."

"Every blessing ignored becomes a curse."

"When I have been truly searching for my treasure, I've discovered things along the way that I never would have seen had I not had the courage to try things that seemed impossible for a shepherd to achieve."

"Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it's all written there."

"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."

"Don't forget that everything that you deal with is only one thing and nothing else."

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