"Jonathan Livingston Seagull" Quotes

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.

You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way.

The only true law is that which leads to freedom.

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.

The gull sees farthest who flies highest.

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

Don't be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again.

The trick, according to Chiang, was for Jonathan to stop seeing himself as trapped inside a limited body that had a forty-two-inch wingspan and performance that could be plotted on a chart. The trick was to know that his true nature lived, as perfect as an unwritten number, everywhere at once across space and time.

Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect.

We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill.