Richard Bach · 144 pages
Rating: (49.4K votes)
“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.”
“Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness.
Listen to it carefully.”
“You're never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true.”
“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.”
“I do not exist to impress the world. I exist to live my life in a way that will make me happy. ”
“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”
“Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself.”
“Remember where you came from, where you're going, and why you created this mess you got yourself into in the first place.”
“We teach best what we most need to learn.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Listen,' he said. 'It's important. We are all. Free. To do. Whatever. We want. To do.”
“Believe you know all the answers, and you know all the answers. Believe you're a master, and you are.”
“The best way to avoid responsibility is to say, 'I've got
responsibilities.”
“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.”
“This is a test to see if your mission in this life is complete, if you are alive, it isn't.”
“You seek problems because you need their gifts.”
“if you argue for your limitations they are yours”
“Live never to be ashamed if anything you do or say is published around the world -- even if what is published is not true.”
“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?”
“Amazing. You were so attached to it, and it still disappeared for you."
“Attached! I was whocking that cloud with everything I had! Fireballs, laser beams, vacuum cleaner a block high...”
“Negative attachments, Richard. If you really want to remove a cloud from your life, you do not make a big production out of it, you just relax and remove it from your thinking. That’s all there is to it.”
“How easy it is to be compassionate when it's yourself you see in trouble.”
“There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.”
“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.
You're always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past.”
“Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them.”
“The original sin is to limit the Is. Don't.”
“Like attracts like. 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 true. You may have to work for it however.”
“Nothing good is a miracle, nothing lovely is a dream.”
“Mzatal gave a decisive nod. “I will
manage this. It cannot continue to interfere
with his work. Too much is at stake.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How do you
intend to manage it?”
“I will tell him the truth and outline the
consequences.”
I was surprised Mzatal didn’t shrivel
away from the look I gave him. “Dude.
Seriously? You expect him to stop
crushing on me because you forbid it?”
Mzatal frowned, contemplative.
“Perhaps not ideal given the entanglement
of human emotions, though there is no time
for it to drag on,” he said, as if he actually
knew what he was talking about. “If he
knows you have no interest and sees how
his distractions have affected his work, he
will subside enough for now.”
My withering look became glacial.
“Boss, you’re completely awesome in
many ways, but you are so off-base with
this it’s not even funny.” I rolled my eyes.
“I’ve already ramped ‘No Interest’ up to
eleven on the dial and, at this point, he
doesn’t care if his work suffers.” I took a
big gulp of coffee, then ran my fingers
through my tangled hair. “Let me deal with
it. Normally I’m not into direct
confrontation with this sort of shit, but
there’s isn’t enough time for it to fizzle out
on its own.”
Mzatal regarded me with that damned
unreadable mask which he’d slipped on as
I was talking. Great. Lords weren’t much
on being told they were wrong, but it had
to be said.”
“perhaps the answer is simply one:
one female angel dancing alone in her stocking feet,
a small jazz combo working in the background.
She sways like a branch in the wind, her beautiful
eyes closed, and the tall thin bassist leans over
to glance at his watch because she has been dancing
forever, and now it is very late, even for musicians.”
“Travis took a deep breath. He turned to Matt and put his hand behind Matt’s neck, pulling his face to his own. Their lips met and Travis relaxed into the kiss. He hadn’t realized how much he had needed to kiss Matt all night. Their faces pressed together, their tongues met and slipped against one another, and Travis felt the familiar crunch of the facial hair around Matt’s mouth pressing into him. Inside him, the hot ember burned brighter and hotter, its warmth spreading out through his entire body. Travis pulled back, his face only an inch away from Matt’s. He could see the orange firelight dancing in Matt’s eyes. He ran his hand along the back of Matt’s head. Matt grinned and said, “I love you, Trav.” Travis nodded and said, “I love you, too, Matty.”
“And it will be a great boon to your friend. He’ll get the security he’s been searching for, the
confidence he never had, and I’ll get the rest of my life with you. Sometimes victory is won by
surrendering something great. And in surrender, we unburden ourselves so clarity can come through.
We’re all just men hiding behind curtains and impressive toys, Evelyn. He can have whatever trinket
validates his struggles, but he’ll never have your heart. That’s mine. I’ll surrender everything, except for you.”
“I don’t know how [books] accumulate like that. They’re part rabbit, I think.”
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.