“He spoke of very simple things- that it is right for a gull to fly, that freedom is the very nature of his being, that whatever stands against that freedom must be set aside, be it ritual or superstition or limitation in any form. "Set aside," came a voice from the multitude, "even if it be the Law of the Flock?""The only true law is that which leads to freedom," Jonathan said. "There is no other.”

“At last, the answer why. The lesson that had been so hard to find, so difficult to learn, came quick and clear and simple. The reason for problems is to overcome them. Why, that’s the very nature of man, I thought, to press past limits, to prove his freedom. It isn’t the challenge that faces us, that determines who we are and what we are becoming, but the way we meet the challenge, whether we toss a match at the wreck or work our way through it, step by step, to freedom.”

“He was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all”

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

“To begin with, you've got to understand that a seagull is an unlimited idea of freedom, an image of the Great Gull, and your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip, is nothing more than your thought itself.”

“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.”

“Whatever harm I would do to another, I shall do first to myself.As I respect and am kind to myself, so shall I respect and be kind to peers, to elders, to kits.I claim for others the freedom to live as they wish, to think and believe as they will. I claim that freedom for myself.I shall make each choice and live each day to my highest sense of right.”