Richard Bach Quotes
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Richard David Bach is an American writer widely known as the author of some of the 1970s' biggest sellers, including Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah . Bach has written numerous works of fiction, and also non-fiction flight-related titles.

Most of Bach's books have been semi-autobiographical, using actual or fictionalized events from his life to illustrate his philosophy. Bach's books espouse his philosophy that our apparent physical limits and mortality are merely appearance. Bach is noted for his love of aviation and for his books related to flying in a metaphorical context. Bach has pursued flying as a hobby since the age of 17. In late August 2012, Bach was badly injured when on approach to landing at Friday Harbor, Washington, his aircraft clipped some power lines and crashed upside down in a field. Wikipedia

✵ 23. June 1936  •  Other names Richard David Bach, Ричард Бах

Richard Bach photo

Corsair133693, Own work / CC BY-SA 3.0

Richard Bach: 154 quotes52 likes

Richard Bach Quotes

“Believe you know all the answers, and you know all the answers. Believe you're a master, and you are.”

Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

“Look in the mirror and one thing is sure: what we see is not who we are.”

Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

“Of course there’s destiny, but destiny doesn’t push you where you don’t want to go. You’re the ones who choose. Destiny is up to you.”

Source: One

“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.”

Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

“The simplest questions are the most profound.
Where were you born?
Where is your home?
Where are you going?
What are you doing?
Think about these once in awhile, and watch your answers change.”

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)

“One way to pick a future is to believe it’s inevitable.”

Source: One

“There’s no disaster that can’t become a blessing, and no blessing that can’t become a disaster.”

Source: One

“The gull sees farthest who flies highest.”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970)

“Heaven is not a place, and it's not a time. Heaven is being perfect.”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

“You seek problems because you need their gifts.”

Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

“Jonathan Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull’s life is so short, and with these gone from his thoughts, he lived a long fine life indeed.”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970)

“It doesn’t take time to change once you understand the problem… Somebody hands you a rattlesnake, it doesn’t take long to drop it, does it?”

Source: One

“The meaning I picked, the one that changed my life: Overcome fear, behold wonder.”

“Next to ‘God’, ‘love’ is the word most mangled in every language.”

Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

“An easy life doesn't teach us anything. In the end it's the learning that matters: what we've learned and how we've grown”

Source: One

“Get this in mind early: We never grow up.”

“Character comes from following our highest sense of right, from trusting ideas without being sure they’ll work.”

Source: One

“Live never to be ashamed if anything you say or do is published around the world, even if what is said is not true.”

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

“The world is a dream, you say, and it’s lovely, sometimes. Sunset. Clouds. Sky.”

“No. The image is a dream. The beauty is real. Can you see the difference?”

Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

“Choose a love and work to make it true, and somehow, something will happen, something you couldn’t plan, will come along to move like to like, to set you loose, to set you on the way to your next brick wall.”

Source: Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit

“When we put up with any situation we don’t have to put up with, it’s not because we’re dumb. We put up with it, because we want the lesson only that situation can teach, and we want it more than freedom myself.”

Source: Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit

“How easy it is to be compassionate when it's yourself you see in trouble.”

Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

“Any powerful idea is absolutely fascinating and absolutely useless until we choose to use it.”

Source: One

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

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

“One school is finished, and the time has come for another to begin.”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

“The simplest things are often the truest.”

“Everything is exactly as it is for a reason.
The crumb on your table is
no mystical reminder of this morning's cookie,
it is there because you have chosen not to remove it.
No exceptions.”

Richard Bach book Messiah's Handbook: Reminders for the Advanced Soul

Source: Messiah's Handbook: Reminders for the Advanced Soul

“don't you think between here and now we will see each other once or twice?”

“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 a butterfly.”

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)

“It’s not when you start that makes your success in the world, but when you quit.”

Richard Bach book Nothing by Chance

Source: Nothing by Chance

“The original sin is to limit the Is.”

Richard Bach book Illusions

—Don't.
Source: Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)

“There are grand rewards for those who pick the high hard roads, but those rewards are hidden by years.”

Source: One

“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.”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

“How much to learn if we could spend one hour, spend twenty minutes, with the us we will become! How much could we say to the us we were.”

Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

“Nothing good is a miracle, nothing lovely is a dream.”

Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

“If it's never our fault, we can't take responsibility for it. If we can't take responsibility for it, we'll always be its victim.”

Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit (1994)

“Know that ever about you stands the reality of love, and each moment you have the power to transform your world by what you have learned.”

Source: One

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

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
Variant: You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true.
Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

“A moment later Jonathan’s body wavered in the air, shimmering, and began to go transparent. “Don’t let them spread silly rumors about me, or make me a god. O. K., Fletch? I’m a seagull. I like to fly, maybe…”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

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

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970)

“Whatever enchants also guides and protects.”

Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

“Having made the decision to love, had I chosen life instead of death?”

Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

“We're the bridge across forever, arching above the sea, adventuring for our pleasure, living mysteries for the fun of it, choosing disasters triumphs challenges impossible odds, testing ourselves over and again, learning love and love and LOVE!”

The Bridge Across Forever (1984)
Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

“Like everything else, Fletcher. Practice.”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

“Passionately obsessed by anything we love--an avalanche of magic flattens the way ahead, levels, rules, reasons, dissents, bears us with it over chasms, fears, doubts. Without the power of that love….”

Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding.”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970)

“Why had such a promising world been crucified on the tree of obligation, thorned by duties, hanged by hypocrisy, smothered by customs?”

Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

“It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea.”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

“It's like, at the end, there's this surprise quiz: Am I proud of me? I gave my life to become the person I am right now! Was it worth what I paid?”

One (1988)

“Happiness is the reward we get for living to the highest right we know.”

Source: Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit

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