Skip to main content

Daily Inspiration Quote by Paulo Coelho

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

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

TopicHeartbreak
SourceBy the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept , Paulo Coelho (novel). English translations commonly cite: "Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering."
CiteCite this Quote

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Coelho, Paulo. (n.d.). Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/waiting-is-painful-forgetting-is-painful-but-not-1212/

Chicago Style
Coelho, Paulo. "Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering." FixQuotes. Accessed February 1, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/waiting-is-painful-forgetting-is-painful-but-not-1212/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/waiting-is-painful-forgetting-is-painful-but-not-1212/. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Paulo Add to List
Waiting or Forgetting: Not knowing which is worse
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho (born August 24, 1947) is a Novelist from Brazil.

19 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Robert Louis Stevenson, Writer
Robert Louis Stevenson
Alexander Chase, Author