By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (1994) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• Pilar: The narrator, a young woman living in Zaragoza.
• La Virgen: Add a description of this character.
• La Diosa
• Pero El
• Teresa
• La Otra

Quotes edit see section history

• “But that moment exists-when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles”

• “The Buddhists were right, the Hindus were right, the Muslims were right, and so were the Jews. Whenever someone follows the path to faith--sincerely follows it--he or she is able to unite with God and to perform miracles. But it wasn't enough simply to know that--you have to make a choice. I chose the Catholic Church because I was raised in it, and my childhood had been impregnated with its mysteries. If I had been born Jewish, I would have chosen Judaism. God is the same, even though He has a thousand names; it is up to us to select a name for him.”

• “God came to earth to demonstrate His power to us. We are a part of His dream, and He wants His dream to be a happy one. Thus, if we acknowledge that God created us for happiness, then we have to assume that everything that leads to sadness and defeat is our own doing. That's the reason we always kill God, whether on the cross, by fire, through exile, or simply in our hearts.”

• “Faith as tiny as a grain of sand allows us to move mountains.”

• “No single day is the same as any other and each morning brings its own special miracle, its magic moments in which ancient universes are destroyed and new stars are created.”

• “Rarely do we realize that we are in the midst of the extraordinary. Miracles occur all around us, signs from God show us the way, angels plead to be heard, but we pay little attention to them because we have been taught that we must follow certain formulas and rules if we want to find God. We do not recognize that God is wherever we allow Him/Her to enter.”

• “Traditional religious practices are important: they allow us to share with others the communal experience of adoration and prayer. But we must never forget that spiritual experience is above all a practical experience of love. And with love, there are no rules. Some may try to control their emotions and develop strategies for their behavior; others may turn to reading books of advice from "experts" on relationships but this is all folly. The heart decides, and what it decides is all that really matters.”

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• The moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us. And to save us.

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

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• YOU HAVE TO take risks, he said. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

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• To love is to be in communion with the other and to discover in that other the spark of God.

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• “And there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it’s better to lose some of the battles in the struggle for your dreams than to be defeated without ever even knowing what you’re fighting for.”

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• We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It’s one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it’s another to think that yours is the only path.

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• “Some people always have to be doing battle with someone, sometimes even with themselves, battling with their own lives. So they begin to create a kind of play in their head, and they write the script based on their frustrations.”

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• The universe always helps us fight for our dreams, no matter how foolish they may be. Our dreams are our own, and only we can know the effort required to keep them alive.”

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• They have been joyful—because those who love conquer the world and have no fear of loss. True love is an act of total surrender.

  Highlighted by 70 Kindle customers

• But love is much like a dam: if you allow a tiny crack to form through which only a trickle of water can pass, that trickle will quickly bring down the whole structure, and soon no one will be able to control the force of the current. For when those walls come down, then love takes over, and it no longer matters what is possible or impossible; it doesn’t even matter whether we can keep the loved one at our side. To love is to lose control.

  Highlighted by 58 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Saint-savin
• Zaragoza
• Francia
• Madrid

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by Veronika Decides to Die.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Paulo Coelho (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813

Notes for Parents edit see section history

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Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Religion & Spirituality › Authors, A-Z › ( C ) › Coelho, Paulo
• Books › Romance › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary

More Books Like This edit see section history