"Allow the world to live as it chooses, and allow yourself to live as you choose"
About this Quote
Then comes the second clause, which turns the blade inward. "Allow yourself" suggests the real blockade isn't society's judgment but your internalized version of it. The quote smuggles in a diagnosis: we often police our own lives using the world's supposed rules, even when no one is enforcing them. It's a two-step de-escalation: stop trying to manage other people's choices, then stop treating your own desires as suspect.
Context matters here. Bach, best known for Jonathan Livingston Seagull, made a career out of spiritualized individualism - self-actualization packaged as parable. That lineage includes 1970s self-help optimism, but this sentence avoids the usual swagger of "be yourself" slogans. It's less about rebellion than boundary-setting. "As it chooses" and "as you choose" put agency on both sides, implying coexistence rather than conquest.
The subtext is a trade: relinquish the exhausting project of correcting the world, and you reclaim the energy to live deliberately. It's not indifference; it's clarity about jurisdiction.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bach, Richard. (2026, January 15). Allow the world to live as it chooses, and allow yourself to live as you choose. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/allow-the-world-to-live-as-it-chooses-and-allow-1332/
Chicago Style
Bach, Richard. "Allow the world to live as it chooses, and allow yourself to live as you choose." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/allow-the-world-to-live-as-it-chooses-and-allow-1332/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Allow the world to live as it chooses, and allow yourself to live as you choose." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/allow-the-world-to-live-as-it-chooses-and-allow-1332/. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.








