Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Summary and Quotes

Excerpts from the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach: 

(photo by Ken R. Young)

"Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight – how to get from shore to food and back again. More than anything else Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly. 

After failing several times to improve his flight, and crashing into the water, he sank low. The weight of failure was heavy on his back. He vowed he would forget this foolishness and be a normal gull. 

Discovering the key to overcoming his failures (adapting his wingspan to that of a falcon’s short wings), he tried again and succeeded! The speed was power, the speed was joy and the speed was pure beauty. His vows of a moment before were swept away. Such promises are only for the gulls that accept the ordinary. One who has touched excellence in his learning has no need of that kind of promise. 

How much more there is now to living! Instead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there’s a reason to life! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly! 

Jonathan discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull’s life is so short. 

The most important thing in living was to reach out and touch perfection in that which he most loved to do. 

Proverb: 'The gull sees farthest who flies highest'. 

The only difference between the normal gull and those who seem special and gifted is that they have begun to understand what they really are and have begun to practice it."

Message: 

     Find your flight to perfection.  Be the best at whatever you do.