Big Square Blog is a blog about standards compliant web design and all things WordPress. It is written by Philip Arthur Moore, a freelance web designer from Houston, Texas.

The Big Square Blog Archives

What follows below is an archive that contains every entry that has been written for the Big Square Blog. You can also navigate through the Big Square Blog posts by selecting a category that interests you on the sidebar to the right.

May 2008

March 2007

Philip Arthur Moore

The “secret to happiness” quote comes from The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. By now you may have noticed a number of quotes from The Alchemist peppered around the Big Square Blog. The book is quite possibly my favorite book of all time, because it holds a deep, profound message.

When Santiago, the Andalusian shepherd boy, was preparing to go on his journey to find his Personal Legend, he came across the palace of an old king to ask the old man what the secret to happiness is. The palace was so marvelous that the king felt compelled to ask Santiago to look around it for a bit, but there was a catch.

The old man requested that Santiago observe his palace while holding two small drops of oil in a spoon as he did so. In short, the old king wanted to see if Santiago was able to concentrate on the beautiful tapestries that were hanging in his dining hall, the garden that took forever to create, and the parchments in his library without spilling a drop of oil from the spoon.

Santiago failed twice, the first time paying too close attention to the oil on the spoon to notice anything around the palace, and the second time paying too close attention to the palace beauty to notice that he had spilled the oil from his spoon. After returning to the old king, Santiago was told the following:

“Well, there is only one piece of advice I can give you,” said the wisest of wise men. “The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.”

At the time that I read this quote, I was staying in a hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Shortly after I finished The Alchemist, I went to Angkor Vat and was astounded by the absolute beauty and history of the place. Yet at the same time, I was reminded that Angkor Vat would be nothing without its grass, trees, soil, rocks, or water.

The oil and the spoon quote reminded me that while we should always take the time to marvel at the beauty of the Universe, we should never forget the small things that make the Universe what it is.