# Illusions - Author: [Richard Bach](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach.md) - Quotes: 32 - Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions ## Quotes > 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. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/if-you-will.md) > 11. The Master answered and said "Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river.12. "The current of the river swept silently over them all — young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self.13. "Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth.14. "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.'15. "The other creatures laughed and said, 'Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed against the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!'16. "But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks.17. "Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more.18. "And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried 'See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the Messiah come to save us all!'19. "And the one carried in the current said, "I am no more messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure."20. "But they cried the more, 'Savior!' all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left alone making legends of a Savior." [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/11-the-master.md) > 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, and teachers. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/learning-is-finding.md) > Everything in this book may be wrong. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/everything-in-this.md) > 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. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/the-bond-that.md) > If your happiness depends on what somebody else does, I guess you do have a problem. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/if-your-happiness.md) > Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/your-only-obligation.md) > We're all the sons of God, or children of the Is, or ideas of the Mind, or however else you want to say it. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/were-all-the.md) > Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/argue-for-your.md) > 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. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/if-you-really.md) > Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/your-friends-will.md) > 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 a butterfly. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/the-mark-of-your.md) > Live never to be ashamed if anything you say or do is published around the world, even if what is said is not true. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/live-never-to-be-ashamed.md) > The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/the-more-i-want.md) > 26. And [the Messiah] said unto them, "If a man told God that he wanted most of all to help the suffering world, no matter the price to himself, and God answered and told him what he must do, should the man do as he is told?"27. "Of course, Master!" cried the many. "It should be pleasure for him to suffer the tortures of hell itself, should God ask it!"28. "No matter what those tortures, no matter how difficult the task?"29. "Honor to be hanged, glory to be nailed to a tree and burned, if so be that God has asked," said they.30. "And what would you do," the Master said unto the multitude, "if God spoke directly to your face and said, 'I COMMAND THAT YOU BE HAPPY IN THE WORLD, AS LONG AS YOU LIVE.' What would you do then?"31. And the multitude was silent, not a voice, not a sound was heard upon the hillsides, across the valleys where they stood. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/26-and-the.md) > Perspective— Use It or Lose It. If you turned to this page, you're forgetting that what is going on around you is not reality. Think about that. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/perspective-use-it-or-lose.md) > Imagine the universe beautiful and just and perfect. > > Then be sure of one thing: > > The Is has imagined it quite a bit better than you have. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/imagine-the-universe.md) > 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. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/every-person-all.md) > 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. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/you-are-led.md) > In order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/in-order-to-live.md) > Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/here-is-a-test.md) > There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/there-is-no-such.md) > The original sin is to limit the Is. —Don't. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/the-original-sin.md) > The simplest questions are the most profound. > > Where were you born? > > Where is your home? > > Where are you going? > > What are you doing? > > Think about these once in awhile, and watch your answers change. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/the-simplest-questions.md) > Don't be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/dont-be-dismayed.md) > Remember where you came from, where you're going, and why you created the mess you got yourself into in the first place. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/remember-where-you.md) > A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed, it feels an impulsion... this is the place to go now. > > But the sky knows the reason and the patterns behind all clouds, and you will know, too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond horizons. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/a-cloud-does.md) > You teach best what you most need to learn. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/you-teach-best.md) > 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 lifeforms, and they'll call you crazy. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/youre-going-to-die.md) > You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true. > > You may have to work for it, however. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/you-are-never.md) > The best way to avoid responsibility is to say, "I've got responsibilities." [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/the-best-way.md) > "There is no problem so big that it cannot be run away from."… > > "You're quoting Snoopy the dog, I believe?" > > "I'll quote the truth wherever I find it thank you." [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-bach/illusions/there-is-no-problem.md)