Thoughts of Richard Bach

• 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 by Chance: A Gypsy Pilot's Adventures in Modern America (1969)

• For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight.
  • Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970)

• The gulls who scorn perfection for the sake of travel go nowhere, slowly. Those who put aside travel for the sake of perfection go anywhere, instantly.
  • Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970)

• A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.
  • A Gift of Wings (1975)

• You have no birthday because you have always lived; you were never born, and never will die. You are not the child of the people you call mother and father, but their fellow-adventurer on a bright journey to understand the things that are.
  • There's No Such Place As Far Away (1978)

• Fly free and happy beyond birthdays and across forever, and we'll meet now and then when we wish, in the midst of the one celebration that never can end.
  • There's No Such Place As Far Away (1978)

• 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)

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)

• We're all the sons of God, or children of the Is, or ideas of the Mind, or however else you want to say it.

• You are led through your lifetime by the inner learning creature, the playful spiritual being that is your real self.
  Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them.

• Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours.

• "There is no problem so big that it cannot be run away from."...
  "You're quoting Snoopy the dog, I believe?"
  "I'll quote the truth wherever I find it thank you."

• Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a false 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.

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

• 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.

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

• 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 reason and the patterns behind all clouds, and you will know, too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond horizons.

• "Don't be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetime, is certain for those who are friends."

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The Bridge Across Forever (1984)

• That's what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we've changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning.

• 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!

Messiah's Handbook: Reminders for the Advanced Soul - The Lost Book from Illusions (2004)

Most of the statements in this book come from the earlier book Illusions (1977)

• Perspective— Use It or Lose It. If you turned to this page, you're forgetting that what is going on around you is not reality. Think about that.

• Remember where you came from, where you're going, and why you created the mess you got yourself into in the first place.

• Learning is finding out what you already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you. You are all learners, doers, and teachers.

• The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.

• There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.

• Imagine the universe beautiful and just and perfect.
  Then be sure of one thing:
  The Is has imagined it quite a bit better than you have.
  The original sin is to limit the Is. —Don't.

• If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats.

• In order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice.

• The best way to avoid responsibility is to say, "I've got responsibilities."

• Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't.
  • Variant: Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't.

• Don't be dismayed at 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.

• 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.

• You're going to die a horrible death, remember. It's all good training, and you'll enjoy it more if you keep the facts in mind.
  Take your dying with some seriousness, however. Laughing on the way to your execution it not generally understood by less advanced lifeforms, and they'll call you crazy.

• Everything above may be wrong!

An idea is never given to you without you being given the power to make it reality. You must, nevertheless, suffer for it.

• Ask yourself the secret of your success. Listen to your answer, and practice it.

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

• Every problem has a gift for you in its hands.

• Evolution made civilization steward of this planet. A hundred thousand years later, the steward stood before evolution not helper but destroyer, not healer but parasite. So evolution withdrew its gift, passed civilization by, rescued the planet from intelligence and handed it to Love.

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

• I don't want to do business with those who don't make a profit, because they can't give the best service.

• I gave my life to become the person I am right now. Was it worth it?

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

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

• In order to win, you must expect to win.

• In the United States Christmas has become the rape of an idea.

• It is by not always thinking of yourself, if you can manage it, that you might somehow be happy. Until you make room in your life for someone as important to you as yourself, you will always be searching and lost.
• Jonathan is that brilliant little fire that burns within us all, that lives only for those moments when we reach perfection.

• Listen to what you know instead of what you fear.

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

• Not being known doesn't stop the truth from being true.

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

• Strong beliefs win strong men, and then make them stronger.

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

• The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.

• 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.

• There's no disaster that can't become a blessing, and no blessing that can't become a disaster.

• We wait all these years to find someone who understands us, I thought, someone who accepts us as we are, someone with a wizard's power to melt stone to sunlight, who can bring us happiness in spite of trials, who can face our dragons in the night, who can transform us into the soul we choose to be. Just yesterday I found that magical Someone is the face we see in the mirror: It's us and our homemade masks.

• You don't want a million answers as much as you want a few forever questions. The questions are diamonds you hold in the light. Study a lifetime and you see different colors from the same jewel.

• You teach best what you most need to learn.