Manuscript Found in Accra by Paulo Coelho, Margaret Jull Costa Read Free Book Online Page A

destroy, but all are written with the same letters. Flowers are elegant, even when hidden among the grasses in a meadow. The gazelle when it runs is elegant, even when it is fleeing from a lion.
    Elegance is not an outer quality, but a part of the soul that is visible to others.
    And even when passions run high, elegance does not allow the real ties binding two people to be broken.
    Elegance lies not in the clothes we wear, but in the way we wear them.
    It isn’t in the way we wield a sword, but in the dialogue we hold that could avoid a war.
    Elegance is achieved when, having discarded all superfluous things, we discover simplicity and concentration. The simpler the pose, the better; the more sober, the more beautiful.
    And what is simplicity? It is the coming together of the true values of life.
    Snow is pretty because it has only one color.
    The sea is pretty because it appears to be a flat plane.
    The desert is beautiful because it seems to consist only of sand and rocks.
    However, when we look more closely at each of these things, we discover how profound and complete they are, and recognize their qualities.
    The simplest things in life are the most extraordinary. Let them reveal themselves.
    Consider the lilies of the field and how they grow; they neither toil nor spin. And yet even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
    The nearer the heart comes to simplicity, the more capable it is of loving freely and without fear. The more fearlessly it loves, the more capable it is of revealing elegance in its every gesture.

    Elegance is not a matter of good taste. Every culture has its own idea of beauty, which is often completely different from ours.
    But every tribe, every people, has values that they associate with elegance: hospitality, respect, good manners.
    Arrogance attracts hatred and envy. Elegance arouses respect and Love.
    Arrogance causes us to humiliate our fellow man or woman. Elegance teaches us to walk in the light.
    Arrogance complicates words, because it believes that intelligence is for only the chosen few. Elegance transforms complex thoughts into something that everyone can understand.
    When we are walking our chosen path, we walk elegantly, emanating light.
    Our steps are firm, our gaze keen, our movements beautiful. And even at the most difficult moments, our adversaries can see no signs of weakness, because our elegance protects us.
    Elegance is accepted and admired because it makes no effort to be elegant.
    Only Love gives form to what, once, we could not even dream of.
    And only elegance allows that form to be made manifest.

 
    And a man who always woke up early to take his flocks to the pastures around the city said:
    “You have studied in order to be able to speak these beautiful words, but we have to work to support our families.”

 
    And he answered:
    Beautiful words are spoken by poets. And one day, someone will write:
    I fell asleep and dreamed that life was only Happiness
.
    I woke and discovered that life was Duty
.
    I did my Duty and discovered that life was Happiness
.
    Work is the manifestation of Love that binds people together. Through it, we discover that we are incapable of living without other people, and that they need us just as much.
    There are two types of work.
    The first is the work we do because we have to in order to earn our daily bread. In that case, people aremerely selling their time, not realizing that they can never buy it back.
    They spend their entire existence dreaming of the day when they can finally rest. When that day comes, they will be too old to enjoy everything life has to offer. Such people never take responsibility for their actions. They say: “I have no choice.”
    However, there is another type of work, which people also do in order to earn their daily bread, but in which they try to fill each minute with dedication and love for others.
    This second type of work we call the Offering. For example, two people might be cooking the