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Some Choices We Live Not Only Once But A Thousand Times Over, Remembering Them For The Rest Of Our Lives.
-Richard Bach
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Some Choices We Live

Richard Bach
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Some Choices We Live Not Only Once But A Thousand Times Over, Remembering Them For The Rest Of Our Lives.

Understanding the Quote: "some choices we live not only once but a thousand times over,..."

This quote by Richard Bach reflects deeply on the theme of choices. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Choices, Remember, Life Decision, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Richard Bach interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Richard Bach

Richard Bach is celebrated for insightful thoughts on choices and remember. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 91486
Topic
Choices
Remember
Life Decision
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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.
Relationship
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In The Highest Sense, We Are All Creatures Of Light. And I Have A Very Difficult Time Talking With People Who Are Cynical About The World. "the World Is No Damn Good, And We're All Animals," And That Kind Of Thing. Well, I'm An Animal.
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To Bring Anything Into Your Life, Imagine That It's Already There.
Inspiring
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Through Default Or Intention, Unaware Or By Design, We Not Only Choose But Create The Visible Outer Conditions That Are Most Resonant To Our Inner State Of Being.
Design
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We Are Each Given A Block Of Marble When We Begin A Lifetime, And The Tools To Shape It Into Sculpture... We Can Drag It Behind Us Untouched, We Can Pound It Into Gravel, We Can Shape It Into Glory.
Block
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Compelling Reason Will Never Convince Blinding Emotion.
Compelling Reason
Emotion
Convince
I'm Absolutely Convinced That This Is A World Of Appearances, Not Reality. There's One Reality And That's Light And Love. When Some Say, We Create Our Own Reality, I Always Demur And Say, "please, Would You Mind Adjusting That A Little Bit? We Create Our Own Appearances." We Become Master Of Appearances And As We Change Our Thought, We Will See The Appearances Around Us Change. That Gives Us This Huge Sense Of Dominion And Power And Control Over Our World.
Reality
Our World
Light
A Tiny Change Today Brings A Dramatically Different Tomorrow.
Inspirational
Change
Inspiring
The Man Who Flies An Airplane ... Must Believe In The Unseen.
Believe
Airplane
Men
If Our Body Is A Perfect Expression Of Our Thought About Body, And If Our Thought About Body Is That It’s Condition Has Everything To Do With Inner Image And Nothing To Do With Time, Then We Don’t Have To Be Impatient For Being Too Young Or Frightened Of Being Too Old.
Expression
Perfect
Body
Life Does Not Require Us To Be Consistent, Cruel, Patient, Helpful, Angry, Rational, Thoughtless, Loving, Rash, Open-minded, Neurotic, Careful, Rigid, Tolerant, Wasteful, Rich, Downtrodden, Gentle, Sick, Considerate, Funny, Stupid, Healthy, Greedy, Beautiful, Lazy, Responsive, Foolish, Sharing, Pressured, Intimate, Hedonistic, Industrious, Manipulative, Insightful, Capricious, Wise, Selfish, Kind Or Sacrificed. Life Does, However, Require Us To Live With The Consequences Of Our Choices.
Funny
Beautiful
Wise
The Space For What You Want Is Already Filled With What You Settled For Instead.
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Want
What You Want
I Relax My Body Completely, Relax My Mind Completely, And Then Imagine Myself At A Level Where Anything Can Happen.
Spiritual
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Everybody Is Given A Dream... You May Have To Work For It However.
Dream
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May
Shop For Security Over Happiness And We Buy It At That Price.
Shops
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If You Don't Want To Be A Teacher, You'd Better Get Off This Planet.
Education
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Want
Never Stop Being A Kid, Richard. Never Stop Feeling And Seeing And Being Excited With Great Things Like Air And Engines And Sounds Of Sunlight Within You. Wear Your Little Mask If You Must To Protect You From The World But If You Let That Kid Disappear You Are Grown Up And You Are Dead.
Kids
Air
Feelings
Heaven Isnot A Place, And It Isnot Atime.heaven Isbeing Perfect.
Time
Perfect
Heaven
Sense Of Family Is Enormously Important To Me. In The Larger Sense, We're All Of Us Family; We're All Of Us Soulmates.
Soulmate
Important
There Is No Such Thing As A Problem Without A Gift For You In Its Hands. You Seek Problems Because You Need Their Gifts.
Happiness
Spiritual
Wisdom
The World's Crazy, When It Comes To Beauty.
Beauty
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World
One Must First Learn To Fall If One Would Fly.
Fall
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Why Fly? Simple. I'm Not Happy Unless There's Some Room Between Me And The Ground.
Simple
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Rooms
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.
Beauty
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Thought Plus Belief Equals Manifestation.
Belief
Plus
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When We Come To The Last Moment Of This Lifetime And We Look Back Across It, The Only Thing That's Going To Matter Is 'what Is The Quality Of Our Love?'
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If You Want Magic, Let Go Of Your Armor. Magic Is So Much Stronger Than Steel.
Letting Go
Magic
Stronger
Mortalhood Is A Fine State To Visit, But You'd Better Not Call It Home.
Home
Fame
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You Don't Tell The Quality Of A Master By The Size Of His Crowds.
Quality
Crowds
Size
A Soulmate Is Someone Who Has Locks That Fit Our Keys, And Keys To Fit Our Locks.
Soulmate
Keys
Soul Mate
The Simplest Things Are Often The Truest.
Simple
Simplicity
Less Is More
For A Moment, Off Balance, Was I Annoyed? Anger Is Always Fear, I Thought, And Fear Is Always Fear Of Loss. Would I Lose Myself If He Made Those Choices? It Took A Second To Settle Down: I'd Lose Nothing. They'd Be His Wishes, Not Mine, And He's Free To Live As He Wants. The Loss Would Come If I Dared Force Him, Tried To Live For Him And Me As Well. There'd Be Disaster Worse Than Life On A Bar Stool.
Fear
Loss
Choices
True Love Stories Never Have Endings.
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Anniversary
Valentines Day
We [people] Have The Power To Destroy Ourselves As Well As The Environment. As A Species We Love What I'd Call Brinks-person-ship, Going Right To The Edge Of Disaster And Somehow Managing To Pull Back And Recover. But My Bet Is Still On The Creative And Playful And Positive In The Species. I Think We Will Manage To Survive And Gradually Turn Things Around.
Thinking
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A Writer, Or A Beginning Writer, Is Faced By The Huge Walls Of Self-consciousness. Most People Think, "what If I Say The Wrong Thing? What If I Don't Sound Erudite And Sophisticated? I'll Be Considered A Fool." In Time, With A Lot Of Practice, You Realize That's Your Foolishness Is Your Gift.
Wall
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Don't You Think Between Here And Now We Will See Each Other Once Or Twice?
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Silly Ideas, Worth The Admission Price In Smiles, But They're True. Is High-energy Physics Interesting Because It's True Or Because It's Crazy?
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An Airplane Stands For Freedom, For Joy, For The Power To Understand, And To Demonstrate That Understanding.
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I Do Not Enjoy Writing At All. If I Can Turn My Back On An Idea, Out There In The Dark, If I Can Avoid Opening The Door To It, I Won't Even Reach For A Pencil.
Writing
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It Was Morning, And The New Sun Sparkled Gold Across The Ripples Of A Gentle Sea.
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Sea
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Life Does Not Listen To Your Logic; It Goes On Its Own Way, Undisturbed. You Have To Listen To Life.
Doe
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Way
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.
Night
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Fail At Love, And The Other Tests Don't Matter.
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Tests
Matter
Next To ‘god’, ‘love’ Is The Word Most Mangled In Every Language.
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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.
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Fear Not, Nor Be Dismayed At The Appearance That Is Darkness, At The Disguise That Is Evil, At The Empty Cloak That Is Death, For You Have Picked These For Your Challenges. They Are Stones On Which You Choose To Whet The Keen Edge Of Your Spirit.
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Anything We Need To Know, We Can Learn It From A Book.
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We Can Lift Ourselves Out Of Ignorance, We Can Find Ourselves As Creatures Of Excellence And Intelligence And Skill.
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We Choose Our Next World Through What We Learn In This One. Learn Nothing, And The Next World Is The Same As This One, All The Same Limitations And Lead Weights To Overcome.
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You Are Free To Smile In The Midst Of Massive Tests And Challenges, Knowing That You Have Chosen To Play This Game, And That You Have Dominion Over All The Appearances Of Earth.
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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.
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One Of The Delights Of The New Age Is That It's A Turning Of Consciousness To Give Us Permission To Look Beyond Appearances. But There Are Traps That Come With It. It's Brave To Throw Off The Old Altars And Churches And Ceremonies That Kept Us From Discovery, It's Not So Brave To Replace Them With Chants And Rituals And New Priests Who Are Retreads Of The Old.
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Giving
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We [americans] Are Game-playing, Fun-loving Creatures; We Are The Otters Of The Universe.
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Dying Is Like Diving Into A Deep Lake On A Hot Day. There's The Shock Of That Sharp, Cold Change, The Pain Of It For A Second, And Then Accepting Is A Swim In Reality. But After So Many Times, Even The Shock Wears Off.
Pain
Reality
Lakes
Each Of Us Is Free To Move Our Consciousness Through That Infinite Pattern Of Possibilities As We Please. If We're Filled With Fears, Or If We Trust The Fears Of Others, We'll Choose A Path In Which Our City Falls Into The Sea, Or A Path In Which A Third World War Vaporizes Us, Or Whatever Other Disaster Is Most Thrilling Or Horrifying Or Fascinating For Us.
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Fall
Here's How The People Live Here, In Big House-shaped Boxes To Keep Off 'rain' And 'snow,' Holes Cut In The Sides So They Can See Out. They Move Around In Smaller Boxes, Painted Different Colours, With Wheels On The Corners. They Need This Box-culture Because Each Person Thinks Of Herself And Himself As Locked In A Box Called A 'body,' Arms And Legs, Fingers To Move Pencils And Tools, Languages Because They've Forgotten How To Communicate, Eyes Because They've Forgotten How To See. Odd Little Planet. Wish You Were Here. Home Soon.
Moving
Rain
Home
If We Agree That The World Is Not What It Seems, Then We Have An Important Question: What Shall We Do About It?
Important
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You Are Led, When You Share Your Loves, To An Enchanted Life Of Inner Happiness, Which Unsharing Others Cannot Know.
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Share
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Your Only Obligation In Any Lifetime Is To Be True To Yourself.
Inspirational
Life
Self Esteem
Money Is A Great Isolator. In Fact, We Don't Even Need To Have Money Or Make Money, We Only Need To Be Perceived As Having Money To Be Isolated In The Strangest Ways From Most Of The Community Around Us. It Reaches The Point Where A Person With Money Spends A Great Deal Of Time Reacting To People Who Are Reacting To The Money.
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You Wait A Lifetime To Meet Someone Who Understands You, Accepts You As You Are. At The End, You Find That Someone, All Along, Has Been You.
Waiting
Lifetime
Accepting
There Are Grand Rewards For Those Who Pick The High Hard Roads, But Those Rewards Are Hidden By Years.
Years
Rewards
Picks
Care About Understanding And Before You Know It, In Just A Few Decades, You'll Have A System Of Thinking That Gives You Answers Whenever You Ask.
Education
Thinking
Giving
Fear Is All The Fear Of Some Loss: "i'm Going To Lose Something." If We Declare, And If We Know In Our Hearts, "i Already Have Everything That I Need: I Have Life, I Have Creativity, I Have Joy, I Have Nourishment. I Have Everything I Need," And If We Just Say, "it Doesn't Depend On My Having A Physical Body To Do It," Then Everything Opens Up.
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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.
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Want
Every Step In Every Proud Life Is A Run From Safety To The Dark, And The Only Thing To Trust Is What We Think Is True.
Running
Truth
Dark
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?
Self
Anorexia
Eating Disorder
No One Does Anything Uncharacteristic Of Who They Are.
Doe
You Are Led Through Your Lifetime By The Inner Learning Creature, The Playful Spiritual Being That Is Your Real Self.
Spiritual
Real
Self
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?
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Real
Sunset
Reputation Is What People Think You Are. Character Is Who You Really Are. Take Care Of Your Character And Your Reputation Will Take Care Of Itself. The More I Want To Get Something Done, The Less I Call It Work.
Character
Thinking
People
Strong Beliefs Win Strong Men, And Then Make Them Stronger.
Being Strong
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Winning
I'm A Writer As Rarely As Possible, When Forced By An Idea Too Lovely To Let Die Unwritten
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Lovely
Dies
In Order To Win, You Must Expect To Win.
Winning
Order
Belief
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.
Body
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Some Religions Believe That There's A Hierarchy, That You Don't Have A Connection, But You Must Go Through The Shaman Or The Priest Or Whoever The Religious Leader Is. And That's What Surprises Me, That Some People Who Find A Huge Value In These Kinds Of Systems Also Seem To Enjoy Illusions. I Can't Figure It Out.
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Every Problem Has A Gift For You In Its Hands.
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Funny
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Anything We Need To Know, We Can Learn It From A Book. Reading, Careful Study, A Little Practice, And We’re Throwing Knives Expertly, Overhauling Engines, Speaking Esperanto Like Natives.
Reading
Book
Knives
We Must Honor Our Dragons, Encourage Them To Be Worthy Destroyers, Expect They'll Strive To Cut Us Down. It Is Their Duty To Ridicule Us, It Is Their Job To Demean Us, To Force Us If They Can To Stop Being Different! And When We Walk Our Way No Matter Their Fire And Their Fury, Our Dragons Shrug When We're Out Of Sight, Return To Their Card-games Philosophical: 'ah Well, We Can't Toast 'em All...'
Jobs
Philosophical
Cutting
There’s No Disaster That Can’t Become A Blessing, And No Blessing That Can’t Become A Disaster.
Blessed
Blessing
Opportunity
We Know Nothing Until Intuition Agrees.
Intuition
Statistics
Agree
Humanity Is Not A Gift Of Nature, It Is A Spiritual Achievement To Be Earned.
Spiritual
Nature
Achievement
Our Soulmate Is The One Who Makes Life Come To Life.
Anniversary
Soulmate
Soul Mate
I Had Experiences Along The Way That Helped Me To Realize That Letting Go Was The Way That Worked For Me To Find Something That I, Personally, As A Reader, Love To Read.
Letting Go
Way
Realizing
There Is Something To Astrology For Those Who Believe In Astrology, As There Is Something To Medicine For Those Who Believe In Medicine. Every System Works When We Give Our Heart To It.
Believe
Heart
Medicine
I Don't Think Any Of My Books Tell The Reader Anything New. But They Do Remind, In A Time That Is Strident And Screeching About The Limitations Of This World And All The Trouble We Can Get Ourselves Into.
Book
Thinking
World
You Are Life, Inventing Form. No More Can You Die On Sword Or Years Than You Can Die On Doorways Through Which You Walk, One Room Into Another. Every Room Gives Its Word For You To Speak, Every Passage Its Song For You To Sing.
Song
Years
Giving
The Only Thing That's Real In Any Universe [is] That Brilliant Fire Of Love That Burns To The Exclusion Of Everything Else. As We Recognize The Presence Of Love, We Break Through The Wall Of Grief That Would Try To Convince Us That The Dear Soul With Whom We Have Learned And Loved So Much No Longer Exists, Or That She Or He Cannot Speak With Us. There Is No Wall That Love Cannot Vaporize. We May Believe In Death, Love Doesn't.
Wall
Real
Grief
I Gave My Life To Become The Person I Am Right Now. Was It Worth It?
Life
Proud Of Me
Persons
Thanks To You, I Always Am So Happy. Now I Want To Give You All The Happiness On Your Birthday.
Birthday
Giving
Want
As You Believe, So It Is For You.
Believe
Part Of Us Is Always The Observer, And No Matter What, It Observes. It Watches Us. It Does Not Care If We Are Happy Or Unhappy, If We Are Sick Or Well, If We Live Or Die. It’s Only Job Is To Sit There On Our Shoulder And Pass Judgment On Whether We Are Worthwhile Human Beings.
Jobs
Sick
Unhappy
You Can't Solve Problems For Someone Whose Problem Is That They Don't Want Problems Solved.
Inspirational
Spiritual
Want
Within Each Of Us Lies The Power Of Our Consent To Health And Sickness, To Riches And Poverty, To Freedom And To Slavery. It Is We Who Control These, And Not Another.
Inspirational
Motivational
Lying
We Thought Humble And Proud At The Same Time, All At Once In Love Again With This Painful Bittersweet Lovely Thing Called Flight.
Sweet Love
Humble
Lovely
Remember The High Board At The Swimming Pool? After Days Of Looking Up At It You Finally Climbed The Wet Steps To The Platform. From There, It Was Higher Than Ever. There Were Only Two Ways Down: The Steps To Defeat Of The Dive To Victory. You Stood On The Edge, Shivering In The Hot Sun, Deathly Afraid. At Last You Leaned Too Far Forward, It Was Too Late For Retreat, And You Dived. The High Board Was Conquered, And You Spent The Rest Of The Day Diving. Climbing A Thousand High Boards, We Demolish Fear, And Turn Into Human Beings.
Life
Adventure
Swimming
In The United States Christmas Has Become The Rape Of An Idea.
Ideas
United States
States
We Can Start Working With Time If You Wish," Chiang Said, "till You Can Fly The Past And The Future. And Then You Will Be Ready To Begin The Most Difficult, The Most Powerful, The Most Fun Of All. You Will Be Ready To Begin To Fly Up And Know The Meaning Of Kindness And Of Love.
Fun
Powerful
Kindness
Two Thousand Years Ago, Five Thousand, They Didn't Have A Word For Imagination, And Faith Was The Best They Could Come Up With For A Pretty Solemn Bunch Of Followers.
Years
Two
Imagination
How Can A Deer Tell When A Leaf Falls Silent In The Forest? She Hears It Breathing Differently.
Fall
Breathing
Deer
There Is A Sense Of Oneness That From Time To Time I'm Aware Of In My Life. Certainly Not All The Time, And There Are Times When I Get Frightened And When I Get Upset. But At The Best Of Times, It's A Personal Oneness.
Oneness
Upset
Frightened
Do You Have Any Idea How Many Lives We Must Have Gone Through Before We Even Get The First Idea That There Is More To Life Than Eating, Or Fighting, Or Power In The Flock? A Thousand Lives, Jon, Ten Thousand! And Then Another Hundred Lives Until We Began To Learn That There Is Such A Thing As Perfection, And Another Hundred Again To Get The Idea That Our Purpose For Living Is To Find That Perfection And Show It Forth... We Choose Our Next World Through What We Learn In This One. Learn Nothing, And The Next World Is The Same As This One, All The Same Limitations And Lead Weights To Overcome.
Fighting
Ideas
Perfection
Bad Things Are Not The Worst Things That Can Happen To Us. Nothing Is The Worst Thing That Can Happen To Us!
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Worst
Jonathan Seagull
Real Integrity Is Doing The Right Thing, Knowing That Nobody's Going To Know Whether You Did It Or Not. Sooner Or Later, Those Who Win Are Those Who Think They Can.
Integrity
Real
Winning
There Is No Such Thing As A Problem Without A Gift.
Gratitude
Problem
Messiah
The Gull Sees Farthest Who Flies Highest
Achievement
Vision
Gulls
That’s Why Love Stories Don’t Have Endings! They Don’t Have Endings Because Love Doesn’t End.
Stories
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Love Story
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.
Light
Jewels
Color
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.
Life
Letting Go
Mistake
Jonathan Sighed. The Price Of Being Misunderstood, He Thought. They Call You Devil Or They Call You God.
Misunderstood
Devil
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
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!
Fun
Odds
Sea
All We See Of Someone At Any Moment Is A Snapshot Of Their Life, There In Riches Or Poverty, In Joy Or Despair. Snapshots Don't Show The Million Decisions That Led To That Moment.
Judging
Decision
Joy
Don't Fear Change. It's Always For The Best.
Uplifting
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.
Block
Thinking
Clouds
How Can We Resent The Life We've Created For Ourselves?
Resent
Testing Ourselves Over And Again, Learning Love And Love And Love!
And Love
Testing
Adventuring
We Design Our Lives Through The Power Of Our Choices. We Feel Most Helpless When We've Made Choices By Default, When We Haven't Designed Our Lives On Our Own.
Lynching
Choices
Design
Why, Jon, Why?" His Mother Asked. "why Is It So Hard To Be Like The Rest Of The Flock, Jon? Why Can't You Leave Low Flying To The Pelicans, The Alhatross? Why Don't You Eat? Son, You're Bone And Feathers!" "i Don't Mind Being Bone And Feathers Mom. I Just Want To Know What I Can Do In The Air And What I Can't, That's All. I Just Want To Know.
Mom
Mother
Son
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
Life
Matter
Easy
Here Is The Test To Find Whether Your Mission On Earth Is Finished: If You're Alive, It Isn't.
Inspirational
Funny
Life
I Think There's An Invisible Principle Of Living Too. If We Believe We're Guided Through Every Step Of Our Lives, We Are. It's A Lovely Sight, Watching It Work.
Life
Believe
Thinking
I'm Not A Celebrity Or Near Celebrity. Sometimes People Will Say, "you're Famous" And That Stops Me Right There. What Does Fame Mean? Fame Is In The Eye Of The Beholder. So, If Somebody Wants To Call Me 'famous', That's Their Business. I'm Just Me, A Guy Who Messes Around With Airplanes And Writes Books That Make Sense To Him.
Book
Mean
Eye
There Is A Kind Of Silver Spiderweb That's Spun Around The World, And The Strands Of That Web Are Certain Loves And Certain Understandings. And If We Follow Those, And If We Walk Those Strands, We're Going To Meet Others At The Intersections Who Have Been Walking The Same Way Across This Web. And When We Meet, There's A Kind Of "i Know Who You Are."
Understanding
World
Way
Navigate By The Same Star, Unwilling To Change, And You Find Yourself Not Only Off-course But Lost.
Change
Stars
Finding Yourself
Just Because Somebody Drops In On You From Another Dimension, Don't Assume They're Wiser Than You About Anything At All, Or That They Can Do Anything Better Than You Can Do Yourself. Discarnate Or Mortal, What Matters About People Is What They Know.
Education
What Matters
People
One School Is Finished, And The Time Has Come For Another To Begin.
School
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Jonathan Seagull
With Every Decision That Anyone Makes, The World Changes. The Decision That We Give Our Consent To Is The One That Remains In Our Consciousness, But The One That We Didn't Make-that Alternate World Goes On In Its Own Direction. So There's Uncountable Numbers Of Alternate "us-es."
Numbers
Giving
Decision
If We Want To End This Lifetime Higher Than We Began, We Can Expect An Uphill Road.
Want
Lifetime
Ends
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.
Son
Light
Numbers
The Only Thing That Matters, At The End Of A Stay On Earth, Is How Well Did We Love, What Was The Quality Of Our Love?
Quality
Earth
Our Love
Can Miles Truly Separate You From Friends... If You Want To Be With Someone You Love, Aren't You Already There?
Love
Friendship
I Miss You
The Worst Lies Are The Lies We Tell Ourselves. We Live In Denial Of What We Do, Even What We Think. We Do This Because We're Afraid.we Fear We Will Not Find Love,and When We Find It We Fear We'll Lose It. We Fear That If We Don't Have Love We Will Be Unhappy.
Love
Fear
Lying
I Think The Source Of Our Sorrow And The Source Of Our Joy Are Intimately Entwined. Our Sorrow Is That We Have Forgotten Who We Are, We Have Forgotten We Are One With That Source Of All Life - Absolutely Indestructible, Perfect, Joyful. The Source Of Our Joy Is When We Remember That.
Thinking
Perfect
Joy
Remember Where You Came From, Where You're Going, And Why You Created This Mess You Got Yourself Into In The First Place.
Determination
Acceptance
Persistence
I Do Not Exist To Impress The World. I Exist To Live My Life In A Way That Will Make Me Happy.
Life
Happy
World
Don't Turn Away From Possible Futures Before You're Certain You Don't Have Anything To Learn From Them.
Certain
Turns
Illusions Of Life
Numbers Are Limits, And Perfection Doesn't Have Limits.
Numbers
Perfection
Limits
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...
Silly
Air
Rumor
Listen,' He Said. 'it's Important. We Are All. Free. To Do. Whatever. We Want. To Do.
Important
Want
Said
Sometimes When You Say Goodbye, That's The Right Thing To Do In A Relationship.
Goodbye
Sometimes
Things To Do
Happiness Is The Reward We Get For Living To The Highest Right We Know.
Rewards
Knows
Highest
To Me, One Of The Most Profound Questions We Can Ask Is: "so What?" And So What If There's An Indefinite Number Of Worlds With Alternate "us-es" In Them? The "so What," To Me, Comes Alive When I Ask Myself: "what If I Could Find A Way To Get In Touch With Those Alternate Mes Who Made Those Choices?" That Is, Persons Who, If I Saw Them Now, I Wouldn't Even Recognize Because Their Choices, Once Small, Have Multiplied To Make Them Such Different People.
Numbers
People
Profound
"what Is My Highest Sense Of Right?" We Can Ask At Any Decision Point In Our Lives And Not Worry About If This Is Going To Lose Us A Lot Of Money Or Is This Going To Make Us A Lot Of Money Or Whatever.
Worry
Decision
Ifs
The Books Remind Us That Way Down Deep In Our Hearts, Part Of Us Knows That We Are Creatures Of Light And We Cannot Be Touched Or Destroyed By Anything Made Out Of Atoms Or Destroyed At All - That Light Is Indestructible. And We May Reflect That And Express That In Multiple Trillions Of Discrete Ways, But Nevertheless, That Indestructible Sense Of Joyful Capacity To Express Life And Express Love Is Always There.
Book
Heart
Love Is
The Meaning I Picked, The One That Changed My Life: Overcome Fear, Behold Wonder.
Fear
Overcoming
Wonder
Whatever It Is That Calls Us, That's Our Path. And As We Walk That Path, We Have A Chance To Shine Forth Who We Are. It Affects Other People Around Us.
People
Shining
Who We Are
I Have A Way Of Finding What Is True For Me, And It’s Not Finished Yet.
Way
Findings
Finished
Every Problem In Your Life Carries A Gift Inside It.
Problem
Carrie
Flyers Have A Sense Of Adventures Yet To Come, Instead Of Dimly Recalling Adventures Of Long Ago As The Only Moments In Which They Truly Lived.
Adventure
Long Ago
Aviation
We Don't Have Rights Until We Claim Them.
Rights
Claims
Some Choices We Live Not Only Once But A Thousand Times Over, Remembering Them For The Rest Of Our Lives.
Choices
Remember
Life Decision
The Ideas Behind The Words Are Simple Ones That Work In Everyday Life; Find What We Most Want To Do; Do It, No Matter What; And In The Doing Be Guaranteed A Very Difficult And A Very Happy Lifetime.
Life
Simple
Ideas
Wrong Turns Are As Important As Right Turns. More Important, Sometimes.
Important
Sometimes
Daring
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.'
Believe
Mirrors
People
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.
Change
Writing
Political
The Only True Law Is That Which Leads To Freedom.
Law
Gulls
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
You Can Achieve A Goal; You Never Really Achieve Your Purpose, Because Your Purpose Is Ongoing. It Never Stops.
Goal
Purpose
Ongoing
It Had Never Gotten Old For Him, Flying. Never Gone Boring. Every Engine Start Was A New Adventure, Guiding The Spirit Of A Lovely Machine Back Into Life; Every Takeoff Blending His Spirit With Its Own To Do What's Never Been Done In History, To Lift Away From The Ground And Fly.
Adventure
Flying
Lovely
Live Never To Be Ashamed If Anything You Say Or Do Is Published Around The World, Even If What Is Said Is Not True.
Life
World
Said
Most Gulls Don't Bother To Learn More Than The Simplest Facts Of Flight - How To Get From Shore To Food And Back Again
Flying
Gulls
Facts
Perspective - Use It Or Lose It.
Use It Or Lose It
Perspective
Use
He Who Argues For His Limitations Gets To Keep Them
Arguing
Limitation
And Like No Other Sculpture In The History Of Art, The Dead Engine And Dead Airframe Come To Life At The Touch Of A Human Hand, And Join Their Life With The Pilot's Own.
Art
Hands
Sculpture
The More I Want To Get Something Done, The Less I Call It Work.
Inspirational
Motivational
Positive
Any Powerful Idea Is Absolutely Fascinating And Absolutely Useless Until We Choose To Use It.
Powerful
Commitment
Opportunity
What A Delighted Fascination It Is, To Stand Aside And Watch Our Dearest Friend Perform On Stage Without Us.
Fascination
Watches
Stage
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.
Wall
Moving
Way
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.
Inspirational
Deserving It
Matter
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.
Inspirational
Life
Cute
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.
Motivational
Depression
Believe
Do You Have Any Idea How Many Lives We Must Have Gone Through Before We Even Got The First Idea That There Is More To Life Than Eating, Or Fighting, Or Power In The Flock? A Thousand Lives, Jon, Ten Thousand!
Fighting
Ideas
Gone
Argue For Your Limitations, And Sure Enough, They're Yours. Do You Think, If You Say The Word "impossible" Enough Times, That Difficult Things Will Suddenly Become Easier For You?
Thinking
Enough Time
Impossible
Your Friends Will Know You Better In The First Minute You Meet Than Your Acquaintances Will Know You In A Thousand Years.
Life
Friendship
Best Friend
Whatever Happens On The Surface, It's Leading Us In A Direction. That Beautiful Core Within Us That Is Our Character Will Make Choices That Will Inevitably Leads Us To A Higher Understanding Of Who We Are And Why We're Here. And It's Best To Be Aware Of That While It's Happening.
Beautiful
Character
Choices
I Belong To A Group Of Men Who Fly Alone. There Is Only One Seat In The Cockpit Of A Fighter Airplane. There Is No Space Alotted For Another Pilot To Tune The Radios In The Weather Or Make The Calls To Air Traffic Control Centers Or To Help With The Emergency Procedures Or To Call Off The Airspeed Down Final Approach. There Is No One Else To Break The Solitude Of A Long Cross-country Flight. There Is No One Else To Make Decisions.
Country
Airplane
Men
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.
Fear
Long
Boredom
Those Who Win Are Those Who Think They Can.
Positive
Attitude
Winning
Learning Is Finding Out What You Already Know.
Education
Learning Knowledge
Doers
How Is It We’re The Lucky Ones, Living A Life That The Children-we-were Took For Dreams?
Dream
Children
Lucky
True Enjoy Stories Never Ever Have Endings.
Stories
Enjoy
Cherish Yesterday, Dream Tomorrow, Live Today.
Dream
Gratitude
Yesterday And Today
My Way Of Writing A Book Is Completely Disorganized - To Hurl Myself At The Problem, Over And Over.
Book
Writing
Way
No Matter How Qualified You Are, You Won't Reach A Better Life Until You Imagine It.
Law Of Attraction
Matter
Imagine
You Teach Best That Which You Need Most To Learn.
Needs
Teach
Reality Lies Far Beyond Space And Time, And I Need To Know Why.
Lying
Reality
Space
The First Prerequisite Of An Advanced Being Is A Sense Of Humor.
Firsts
Sense Of Humor
Prerequisites
You Choose, You Live The Consequences. Every Yes, No, Maybe, Creates The School You Call Your Personal Experience.
School
Personal Experiences
You Choose
And Behind It Lies Not Blind Chance But A Principle That Works To Help Us Understand, A Thousand "coincidences" And Friends Come To Show Us The Way When The Problem Seems Too Hard To Solve Alone. Problems For Overcoming. Freedom For Proving. And, As Long As We Believe In Our Dream, Nothing By Chance.
Dream
Lying
Believe
Part One: I Do Not Exist To Impress The World. I Exist To Live My Life In A Way That Will Make Me Happy. Part Two: Everybody Else Is Free To Do Whatever They Feel Like Doing, For A Living. Part Three: Responsible Is Able To Respond, Able To Answer For The Way We Choose To Live. There's Only One Person We Have To Answer To, Of Course, And That Is Ourselves.
Two
Three
Answers
You've Given Up Your Whole Life To Be The Person You Are Now. Is It Worth It?
Given
Whole Life
Persons
It Doesn't Matter Whether They [beloved Ones] Are On This Planet Or Not On This Planet Anymore. Once Something Is Bound By Love, As Long As That Love Exists, There Is Nothing That Can Separate Us. There Is The Appearance Of Separation, But The Heart, It Always Treasures And Values That.
Heart
Long
Treasure
What I Love Doing Is Basically Two Things: I Love Flying Airplanes And I Love Communication.
Communication
Airplane
Two
A Drug For Everything Is Madness. Legal Or Not, Prescribed Or Not, Over-counter Under-counter Bought For Blood On Street-corners-every Pill Separates Us From Knowing Our Own Completion And From Being Taught By What's True.
Blood
Knowing
Drug
Two Words: Love Leads. Listen To That Ring Of Love Within. If We Follow That Leading Of Love We'll Be Guaranteed An Adventurous, Positive, Joyful Life.
Two
Joyful
Adventurous
Responsible Is Able To Respond, Able To Answer For The Way We Choose To Live. There's Only One Person We Have To Answer To, Of Course, And That Is Ourselves.
Answers
Able
Way
Argue For Your Limitations, And Sure Enough They're Yours.
Inspirational
Inspiring
Success
One Of The Great Cosmic Laws, I Think, Is That Whatever We Hold In Our Thought Will Come True In Our Experience. When We Hold Something, Anything, In Our Thought, Then Somehow Coincidence Leads Us In The Direction That We've Been Wishing To Lead Ourselves.
Thinking
Law
Wish
Having Made The Decision To Love, Had I Chosen Life Instead Of Death?
Decision
Made
Chosen
All Of Us Are Called By Something In This World That Attracts Us. And It Doesn't Matter What It Is - You Can Be An Engine Mechanic Or An Aviator Or You Can Be Someone Who Loves Their Flower Garden Or The World Of Commerce Or Sailboats.
Flower
Garden
World
I'm Utterly Convinced Of The One-ness Of Love And Us As Its Perfect Reflection. I Am Absolutely Convinced That The World Around Us Is A World Of Appearances And Anyone Who Wants To Can Practice It. Change Your Thought And Your Environment Will Change. It's Not Instantaneous And Sometimes We Have To Work Very Hard To Make What We Want Happen. Working Hard And Holding That Thought, It Will Change.
Reflection
Practice
Perfect
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