Re-quote note: A similar line is repeated in the same Bach text:

“He walks on water, folks, and he is discouraged because he doesn’t walk through walls.”

“But that was easy, and this…”

“Argue for your limitations, and you get to keep them,” he sang. “Did you not a week ago swim in the earth itself?”

[Source: Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977) Dell, 1979 edition, p. 131]

Extended excerpt: [Punctuation & line breaks original to Bach’s text. Bach is citing from his[fictional] Messiah’s Handbook, Reminders for the Advanced Soul, also referred to in the book as Savior’s Manual, a “collection of maxims and short paragraphs.” He later published a version of the Messiah’s Handbook in 2004.]:

“The handbook was upside down in the grass where it had fallen. I turned it over carefully, and read.

“Argue

for your limitations,

and sure enough,

they’re

yours.” (p. 100)

Source [Featured source & Re-quote]: Library – Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977 – 1979 edition cited) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 9780440139799

Extended excerpt [Fiction. ‘Seagull’ to the narrator]:

“But remember,” he said, “that not being known doesn’t stop the truth from being true.” (no page number)

Source link: Library – There’s No Such Place As Far Away (1990|Delta 1998 ed.) online via Open Library [free subscription service]: https://archive.org/stream/theresnosuchplac00rich#page/n35/mode/2up 

Extended excerpt: [None – Quoted line appears alone on the page.]

“Shop for security over happiness and you buy it, at that price.”

Source link: Library – Messiah’s Handbook () online via Open Library [free subscription service]: https://archive.org/stream/messiahshandbook00bach#page/n49/mode/2up

Extended excerpt [Fictional dialogue. Italics original to cited text.]:

“Too beautiful, Dickie! From the top of that windmill, terror was in lowercase, WONDER! was in caps. The meaning I picked, the one that changed my life: Overcome fear, behold wonder. It’s still true.” (p. 83)

Source: Library – Running from Safety (1994|1995 Delta) International Standard Book No. (ISBN) 0-385-31528-7

Extended excerpt: [Chapter 23]

“I do not miss Leslie, I suppose. I miss what she represents for me at this time.

The warrior left.

There came another idea in its place, a thought altogether kind: The opposite of loneliness, Richard, it’s not togetherness. It is intimacy.” (pp. 183-184)

Source note: From Bach’s introduction to The Bridge Across Forever:

“What’s written here happened in fact very nearly the way it’s turned out in print. I’ve taken a few liberties with chronology, some people in the book are composites, most of the names are fictitious. The rest I couldn’t have invented had I tried; the truth wasn’t plausible enough to have been fiction.” (p. 14)

Source: Library – The Bridge Across Forever (1984|Nov. 1989 New Dell ed.) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-440-10826-8

Extended excerpt [Fiction, parable]:

“When Jonathan Seagull joined the Flock on the beach, it was full night. He was dizzy and terribly tired. Yet in delight he flew a loop to landing, with a snap roll just before touch-down. When they hear of it, he thought, of the Breakthrough, they’ll be wild with joy. 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.” (pp. 30-31)

Source link: Library – Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970|Jan. 1973 Avon Books ed.) online via Open Library [subscription service]: https://archive.org/stream/jonathanlivingst00bach?ref=ol#page/30/mode/2up