Richard Bach Quotes

If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they're yours; if they don't they never were.

The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.

Overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull . . . was no ordinary bird. Most gulls don't bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else, Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly.

Don't believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you'll see the way to fly.

A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed, it feels an impulsion... this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds, and you will know, too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond horizons.

He was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all

To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived.

Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.

Don't be dismayed by good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.

Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we're two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we've found the right person. Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.

The gull sees farthest who flies highest

Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself.

A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we're pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we're safe in our own paradise.

For most gulls it was not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight.

Every gift from a friend is a wish for your happiness.

You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way".

You don't love hatred and evil, of course. You have to practice and see the real gull, the good in every one of them, and to help them see it in themselves. That's what I mean by love.

Nothing happens by chance, my friend... No such thing as luck. A meaning behind every little thing, and such a meaning behind this. Part for you, part for me, may not see it all real clear right now, but we will, before long.

Nothing happens by chance, my friend... No such thing as luck.

Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you.

You are always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past.

No matter how qualified or deserving we are, we will never reach a better life until we can imagine it for ourselves and allow ourselves to have it.

Mistakes - call them unexpected learning experiences.

You teach best what you most need to learn.

The conversation between Fletcher and Jonathan Livingston Seagull is centered on why some have achieved more than others . . . are they divine . . . ahead of their times . . . Fletcher says, Well, this kind of flying has always been here to be learned by anybody who wanted to discover it; that's got nothing to do with time. We're ahead of the fashion, maybe. Ahead of the way most gulls fly. Poor Fletch. Don't you believe what your eyes are telling you? All they show is limitations. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you'll see the way to fly.

The world is your exercise book, the pages on which you do your sums. It is not reality, though you may express reality there if you wish. You are also free to write lies, or nonsense, or to tear the pages.

Can miles truly separate you from friends... If you want to be with someone you love, aren't you already there?

A tiny change today brings a dramatically different tomorrow.

Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't.

There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they're necessary to reach the places we've chosen to go.

Laughing on the way to your execution is not generally understood by less-advanced life forms, and they call you crazy.

I do not exist to impress the world. I exist to live my life in a way that will make me happy.

Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.

Sooner I'd try to change history than turn political, than try convincing others to write letters or to vote or to march or to do something they didn't already feel like doing.

Anything we need to know, we can learn it from a book.

Just be who you are, calm and clear and bright. Automatically, as we shine who we are, asking ourselves every minute is this what I really want to do, doing it only when we answer yes, automatically that turns away those who have nothing to learn from who we are and attracts those who do, and from whom we have to learn, as well.

You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it, however.

The only true law is that which leads to freedom.

We [Americans] are game-playing, fun-loving creatures; we are the otters of the universe.

Jonathan Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull's life is so short, and with those gone from his thought, he lived a long fine life indeed.

If your happiness depends on what somebody else does, I guess you do have a problem.

How can a deer tell when a leaf falls silent in the forest? She hears it breathing differently.

Every problem has a gift for you in its hands.

The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly.

If you want to meet someone who can fix any situation you don't like, who can bring you happiness in spite of what other people say or believe, look in a mirror, then say this magic word: 'Hello.'

You can achieve a goal; you never really achieve your purpose, because your purpose is ongoing. It never stops.

You're never given a dream without the power to make it true.