Bryan Strawser

One of my favorite books is Richard Bach’s Illusions. A book first given to me by a high school classmate and then-girlfriend, it has become a book that I often read and then pass along a copy to a friend in need.. only to find myself buying another copy of the book weeks later..

And then the cycle repeats itself yet again.

In Illusions, Bach writes:

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
false messiah.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

The world is your exercise-book, the pages
on which you do your sums.
It is not reality, although you can express
reality there if you wish.
You are also free to write nonsense, or lies,
or to tear the pages.

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.

The truth you speak has no past and no future.
It is, and that’s all it needs to be.

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

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.

Some wisdom from Gandalf:

All that we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

I would say to the House, as I have said to those that have joined the government. I have nothing to offer, but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.

[...]

You ask. What is our policy?

I will say it is to wage war by sea, land, and air with all of our armed forces and our might and all the strength that god can give us.

[...]

You ask. What is our aim?

I can answer in one word. VICTORY. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terror. Victory however long and hard the road may be.

For without victory there is no survival. Let that be realized. No survival for the British Empire. No survival for the urge and impulse for the ages - that all of mankind would move towards its goal.

[...]

Come then, let us go forward together, with our united strength…

You’ve got to enjoy living baby because dying is a pain in the ass

- Frank Sinatra

Go, stranger, and in Lakedaimon tell
That here, obedient to their laws,
We fell.

- Simonicles at Thermopylae

Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.

Listen here you Title X motherfuckers….

- General Tommy Franks to the Joint Chiefs of Staff - from Bob Woodward’s Plan of Attack

Lost in thought she was startled by the sight of a fish on a bicycle pedaling toward her. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “I grew weary of swimming with the tide and have decided to live with abandon.”

And she smiled to herself because she understood.

- Source Forthcoming, from Muffy’s Blog.