Selected Quotes by Richard Bach
Richard Bach- Richard David Bach (born June 23, 1936) is an American writer. He has written numerous works of both fiction and also non-fiction flight-related titles. His works include "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" (1970) and "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)". Both were bestsellers in the 1970s.
Most of his books have been semi-autobiographical. He used actual or fictionalized events from his life to illustrate his philosophy. His books teach his philosophy that people' apparent physical limits and mortality are merely appearance.
He noted his love of aviation and for his books related to flying in a metaphorical context. He has flown as a hobby since the age of 17. In late August 2012, he was severely injured when on approach to landing at Friday Harbor, Washington, his aircraft clipped some power lines and crashed upside down in a field.
Selected Quotes by Richard Bach:
“Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.”
Richard Bach, Friendship
“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.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach, Friendship
“If our friendship depends on things like space and time, then when we finally overcome space and time, we've destroyed our own brotherhood! But overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now. And in the middle of Here and Now, don't you think that we might see each other once or twice?”
Richard Bach, Friendship
“Can miles truly separate you from friends... If you want to be with someone you love, aren't you already there?”
Richard Bach, Friendship, Love
“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.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach, Life
“Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness. Listen to it carefully.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach, Life
“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.”
Richard Bach, Life
“You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn’t flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn’t have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there.”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach, Life
“Jonathan sighed. The price of being misunderstood, he thought. They call you devil or they call you god.”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach, Life
“When you have come to the edge of all the light you have
And step into the darkness of the unknown
Believe that one of the two will happen to you
Either you'll find something solid to stand on
Or you'll be taught how to fly!”
Richard Bach, Life
“Bad things are not the worst things that an happen to us. NOTHING is the worst thing that can happen to us.”
Richard Bach, Life
“A tiny change today brings a dramatically different tomorrow.”
― Richard Bach, One
Richard Bach, Life
“Overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now.”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach, Life
“Wrong turns are as important as right turns. More important, sometimes.”
― Richard Bach, One
Richard Bach, Life
“It must happen to us all…We pack up what we’ve learned so far and leave the familiar behind. No fun, that shearing separation, but somewhere within, we must dimly know that saying goodbye to safety brings the only security we’ll ever know.”
― Richard Bach, Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit
Richard Bach, Life
“Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect. -And that isn't flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn't have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there.”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach, Life
“Believe you know all the answers, and you know all the answers. Believe you're a master, and you are.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach, Life
“Look in the mirror and one thing is sure: what we see is not who we are.”
― Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story
Richard Bach, Life
“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.”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach, Life
“The gull sees farthest who flies highest.”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach, Life
“The best way to avoid responsibility is to say, 'I've got responsibilities.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach, Life
“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.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach, Life
“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. 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.”
Richard Bach, Life, Love
“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 will see the way to fly.”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach, Goals
“I’m here not because I am supposed to be here, or because I’m trapped here, but because I’d rather be with you than anywhere else in the world.”
― Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story
Richard Bach, Goals
“Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions
Richard Bach, Goals
“Argue for your limitations and, sure enough, they're yours.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach, Goals
“Remember where you came from, where you're going, and why you created this mess you got yourself into in the first place.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions
Richard Bach, Goals
“Listen to what you know instead of what you fear.”
Richard Bach, Goals
“Here is a test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: If you´re alive it isn't.”
― Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story
Richard Bach, Goals
“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.”
Richard Bach, Goals
“To bring anything into your life, imagine that it's already there.”
― Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story
Richard Bach, Goals
“The only thing that shatters dreams is compromise.”
― Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story
Richard Bach, Goals
“You are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.” ― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach, Goals, Power
“You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true.”
― Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story
Richard Bach, Goals, Power
“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.”
― Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story
Richard Bach, Goals, Life
“This is a test to see if your mission in this life is complete, if you are alive, it isn't.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach, Goals, Life
“I do not exist to impress the world. I exist to live my life in a way that will make me happy.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach, Goals, Life, Happiness
“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.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach, Art
“A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.”
Richard Bach, Art, Work
“You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way."
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach, Freedom
“You're always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past.”
Richard Bach, Freedom
“Listen,' he said. 'It's important. We are all free to do whatever we want to do.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach, Freedom
“He was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all.”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach, Freedom
“Your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip," Jonathan would say, other times, "is nothing more than your thought itself, in a form you can see. Break the chains of your thought, and you break the chains of your body, too.”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach, Freedom
“In order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy choice.”
Richard Bach, Freedom, Happiness
“There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.”
Richard Bach, Problems
“If your happiness depends on what somebody else does, I guess you do have a problem.”
Richard Bach, Problems, Happiness
“We teach best what we most need to learn.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach, Intelligence/Wisdom
“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.”
― Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story
Richard Bach, Intelligence/Wisdom
“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, teachers.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach, Intelligence/Wisdom
“We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill.”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach, Intelligence/Wisdom
“That’s why love stories don’t have endings! They don’t have endings because love doesn’t end.”
― Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story
Richard Bach, Love
“Boredom between two people doesn't come from being together physically. It comes from being apart mentally and spiritually.”
― Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story
Richard Bach, Love
“The opposite of Loneliness is not Togetherness , It's Intimacy.”
Richard Bach, Love
“True love stories never have endings.”
Richard Bach, Love
“I had grown up in a house with a fence around it, and in this fence was a white smooth wooden gate, two holes bored round and low together so the dog could see through. One night, the moon high, late for me home from the school dance, I remember that I stopped, hand on the gate, and spoke so quietly to myself and to the woman that I would love that not even the dog could have heard.
I don’t know where you are, but you’re living right now, somewhere on this earth. And one day you and I are going to touch this gate where I’m touching it now. Your hand will touch this very wood, here! Then we’ll walk through and we’ll be full of a future and of a past and we’ll be to each other like no one else has ever been. We can’t meet now, I don’t know why. But some day our questions will be answers and we’ll be caught in something so bright...and every step I take is one step closer on a bridge we must cross to meet.”
― Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story