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

"But one creature said at last, 'I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom."

"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."

"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."

"I'll quote the truth wherever I find it, thank you."

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

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

"A tiny change today brings a dramatically different tomorrow."

"Remember where you came from, where you're going, and why you created the mess you got yourself into in the first place. 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 is not generally understood by less-advanced life-forms, and they'll call you crazy."

"To fly as fast as thought, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived."

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

"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."

"You teach best what you most need to learn."

"Just read The Virtue of Minding Your Own Business. Oh my, what currents run deep! Beautifully seen, beautifully told. Praise praise praise . . . Pardon my French, but you are one darn major American writer!'--Richard Bach, author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions, on Sandcastle and Other Stories."

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

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

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

"Learning is finding out what you already know."

"If you argue for your limitations they are yours."

"Civilization... wrecks the planet from seafloor to stratosphere."

"You are always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past."

"Tell him I said that he will know when he's my age that books aren't written on whims or old promises. Books are written on years turned inside out by ideas that never let go until you get them in print, and even then writing's a last resort, a desperate ransom you pay to get your life back."

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

"Don't you think between here and now we will see each other once or twice?"

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

"Jonathan is that brilliant little fire that burns within us all, that lives only for those moments when we reach perfection."

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

"You're never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true."

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

"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."

"What the student calls a tragedy the master calls a butterfly."

"To bring anything into your life, imagine that it's already there."

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

"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."

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

"No one does anything uncharacteristic of who they are."

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

"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."

"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."

"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 the butterfly."

"Don't be dismayed by 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."

"In the path of our happiness shall we find the learning for which we have chosen this lifetime."

"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."

"How can a deer tell when a leaf falls silent in the forest? She hears it breathing differently."

"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."

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

"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."

"Avoid problems, and you'll never be the one who overcame them."

"Here is a test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't."

"Like everything else, Fletcher. Practice."