Daily Inspiration Quote by Paulo Coelho

"Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering"

Paulo Coelho, Novelist

About this Quote

Coelho’s line lands because it treats indecision not as a mild inconvenience but as a bodily form of torment. “Waiting” and “forgetting” are framed as clean, if brutal, verbs: each implies a choice with an identity attached. Waiting keeps the story alive; it’s hope dressed up as patience. Forgetting is a self-protective amputation, a refusal to keep paying emotional rent. Both hurt, but at least they’re coherent. The real cruelty is the foggy middle state, when you can’t even tell which pain is honest.

The syntax does quiet work. The repetition of “painful” establishes a rhythm like a pulse, then the sentence pivots to “not knowing,” a phrase that makes suffering feel cognitive, not romantic. Coelho’s novels are built for readers in transition - leaving someone, chasing a calling, hovering between faith and skepticism - and this line is basically a manifesto for that audience. It blesses the messy, humiliating limbo most self-help language tries to “solve.”

There’s subtext, too: uncertainty isn’t neutral. It drains time, dignity, and agency. You’re not just stuck; you’re split, forced to rehearse two lives at once. Calling it the “worse kind of suffering” (grammatical slip and all) even reinforces the point: indecision doesn’t speak elegantly. It stammers. It exhausts. And it keeps you from the only thing that reliably reduces pain in Coelho’s universe: choosing a direction, then paying the price.

Quote Details

Topic	Heartbreak
Source	Verified source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (Paulo Coelho, 1994) Text match: 98.99% Provider: Cross-Reference Evidence: Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering. (Page 95 (English ed. often cited; varies by edition)). This line is consistently attributed to Coelho’s novel. The earliest primary-work attribution is the original Portuguese novel "Na margem do rio Piedra eu sentei e chorei" (first published 1994). Coelho’s own official blog later reposted it with the parenthetical source “(By the River Piedra I sat down and wept)”. An exact page number can differ by printing/format; a commonly cited location is p. 95 in at least one English edition, but I did not verify the line against a scanned/previewed copy of the first English printing itself in this search. Portuguese text as commonly reproduced: “Esperar dói. Esquecer dói. Mas não saber que decisão tomar é o pior dos sofrimentos.” ([paulocoelhoblog.com](https://paulocoelhoblog.com/2009/02/10/quote-of-the-day-286/?utm_source=openai)) Other candidates (1) Alchemical Quotes of Paulo Coelho (Sreechinth C) compilation95.0% ... that remains in the present, where all of life's secrets lie.” “Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But no...
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