# Quote — Paulo Coelho, Aleph

> In magic—and in life—there is only the present moment, the now. You can’t measure time the way you measure the distance between two points. “Time” doesn’t pass. We human beings have enormous difficulty in focusing on the present; we’re always thinking about what we did, about how we could have done it better, about the consequences of our actions, and about why we didn’t act as we should have. Or else we think about the future, about what we’re going to do tomorrow, what precautions we should take, what dangers await us around the next corner, how to avoid what we don’t want and how to get what we have always dreamed of.

- Author: [Paulo Coelho](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho.md)
- Book: [Aleph](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/aleph.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho#Aleph_(2011)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/aleph/in-magic-and-in-life-there

## More from this book

> I forgive the anger and the cruelty,

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/aleph/i-forgive-the-anger.md)

> I love you like a river that begins as a solitary trickle in the mountains and gradually grows and joins other rivers until, after a certain point, it can flow around any obstacle in order to get where it wants.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/aleph/i-love-you-like-a.md)

> I forgive the stillborn hopes,

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/aleph/i-forgive-the-stillborn.md)