Terry Goodkind Quotes

Fate does not seek our consent.

Truth is hard to sell; it gives no sense of purpose. It is simply truth.

Alone, he must bear the weight of a sin he dare not confess to the one person he loves ... and has lost.

Such beliefs were born in man's willful refusal to use his mind, in his lust for the unearned, his wish for success without effort. Such beliefs were the embodiment of hatred for all that was good, hatred for virtue, hatred for value. It was ultimately a hatred of themselves, of life, of existence. It was that hate, that dedication to death, that was the true manifestation of evil.

Please meet Magda Searus, the first Confessor.

panicked people didn't listen to reason and didn't want to hear the truth.

People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People's heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.

Right and wrong are not the product of census.

She stood straight and still, her arms at her side. Her eyebrows had the graceful arch of a raptor's wings in flight. Her green eyes came unafraid to his. The connection was so intense that it threatened to drain his sense of self. He felt that he had always known her, that she had always been a part of him, that her needs were his needs. She held him with her gaze as surely as a grip of iron would, searching his eyes as if searching his soul, seeking an answer to something. I am here to help you, he said in his mind. He meant it more than any thought he had ever had.
The intensity of her gaze relaxed, loosening its hold on him. In her eyes he saw something that attracted him more than anything else. Intelligence. He saw it flaring there, burning in her, and through it all he felt an overriding sense of her integrity. Richard felt safe.

The bird cawed. The loud cry echoed off the mountains. The raven swooped down before them again, narrowly missing Richard's head. Gaining height, the bird circled. The air whistled through its feathers as it dove at them, driving them back from the water. "Is that bird crazy?" Kahlan asked. "Maybe it's protecting a nest? Or do all ravens behave like that?

Maybe I would like to see beauty again before I die." "Bah. What would you carve? What would you see before you die? What could be worth your life?" "Man's nobility - the most sublime form of beauty.

It does the sheep no good to preach the goodness of a diet of grass, if the wolves are of a different mind.

To the right person, the person who is truly born to it, duty is a form of love, through which all is possible. Duty is not always a denial of things, but an expansion of them to others. Duty is not always a chore, but is best carried out with love.

We can't live our lives according to what might have been. We have to live by what is.

The Spiritist is said to be a dangerous woman.

Richard rubbed his temples. He had a headache from lack of sleep. "Don't you understand? This isn't about conquering lands and taking things from others; this is about fighting oppression."
The general rested a boot on the gilded rung of a chair and hooked a thumb behind his wide belt. "I don't see much difference. From my experience, the Master Rahl always thinks he knows best, and always wants to rule the world. You are your father's son. War is war. Reasons make no difference to us; we fight because we are told to, same as those on the other side. Reasons mean little to a man swinging his sword, trying to keep his head.

Admitting that you do not know something is the first step to learning.

Who knows, perhaps she will think better of such hateful accusations. Perhaps someone will talk some sense into her before it becomes necessary to protect the Minister from her wrongful charges. Perhaps she will even decide that butchering work is not for her, and she will go off to work on a farm, or something.

A book is read one page at a time. A shelf is read one book at a time. A library is read one shelf at a time.

And that you are equally faithful to her.

We all make mistakes.
The people who love us forgive the mistakes.
The people who won't forgive don't really matter

Why people wanted to dance whenever it got dark was beyond him. Somehow, the two seemed to go together, like bees and flowers, or flies and dung. Darkness and dancing.

The Screelings are loose and the Keeper may win.
His assassins have come to rip off your skin.
Golden eyes will see you if you try to run.
The screelings will get you and laugh like it's fun.

Walk away slow or they'll tear you apart,
and laugh all day long as they rip out your heart.
Golden eyes will see you if you try to stand still.
The screelings will get you, for the Keeper they kill.

Hack 'em up, chop 'em up, cut 'em to bits,
or else they will get you while laughing in fits.
If the screelings don't get you the Keeper will try,
to reach out and touch you, your skin he will fry.

Your mind he will flail, your soul he will take.
You'll sleep with the dead, for life you'll forsake.
You'll die with the Keeper till the end of time.
He hates that you live, your life is the crime.

The screelings might get you, it says so in text.
If screelings don't get you the Keeper is next,
lest he who's born true can fight for life's bond.
And that one is marked; he's the pebble in the pond.

Reality is irrelevant; Perception is everything.

I'm afraid that we all make mistakes. One of the things that defines our character is how we handle mistakes. If we lie about having made a mistake, then it can't be corrected and it festers. On the other hand, if we give up just because we made a mistake, even a big mistake, none of us would get far in life.

But emotions when based on valued things can be a faithful and consistant sum of truths.

Emotion did not play a part in truth, only reality did.

It was a refined sort of bottled fury that had the potential to be devastatingly violent, and yet at the same time he was also a man able to control it.

If I was a nobody you wouldn't be so eager to see me dead. Just like these people you know that I am devoted to the truth. That is why you want to eliminate me. - Magda Searus

The good in life is what quenches hatred in normal people, the way a smile can calm a quarrel. But in those people who carry this flaw, their hatred burns so hot they come to hate what is good in life specifically because they don't want to stop hating. Hatred becomes the driving purpose of their lives. They live to hate.

Why should I live my whole life where I don't want to be. [it's a good point - pretty hard to argue with that sort of logic really isn't it!

Wizard's Eleventh and Final Rule
The "Rule Unspoken", the "Rule Unwritten", "The rule from the beginning of time.

Life was not fair, it simply existed. If you accidentally stepped on a poison snake, you got bitten. Intentions were irrelevant.

Anger made a better warrior than fear.

My brother always says that real power is not brokered in public.

But if used for retribution, magic is vengeance incarnate.

I asked him what the amulet meant to him, what its meaning was. At first, I thought he wasn't going to answer. But then, in a haunting voice, he said that it represented the dance with death. I was horrified by that. He said the dance with death was the way of the War Wizard.

Emotions are the end result, the sum, of things learned

We don't want to lose you Lord Rahl. We don't want to go back to way things were." She sounded on the verge of tears. "We like being able to do simple things, like make a joke, and laugh. We could never do such things before. We always lived in fear that if we said the wrong thing we would be beaten, or worse. Now that we have seen another way, we don't want to go back to that. If you throw your life away for the Midlands, then we will.- Cara

The Grace represented the world of life, the world of the dead, and the way magic and Creation linked them. The outer circle of the design represented the beginning of the infinite world of the dead. Inside the outer circle was a square, its points just touching the outer circle. Inside the square was another circle, just touching the insides of the square. The area between those two circles with the square represented the world of life. The inside circle was life's beginnings, the outer circle its end, where souls crossed through the veil into the eternity of the underworld. An eight-pointed star inside the smaller circle was the Light of Creation. Lines from the star's points radiated out across the inner circle. the square. and across the outer circle that also symbolized the veil to the wold of the dead. The lines radiating outward from the Light represented the spark of the gift that journeyed with everyone from birth, through life, and on into death.

He remembered the subjects well enough to know that finding the answer was a long shot. Still, it was the only shot they had.

Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled." She put her heart and soul into the words. "We live only to serve. Our lives are yours.

Wizard's Fourth Rule
There is magic in sincere forgiveness; in the forgiveness you give, but more so in the forgiveness you receive.

Expanded beyond its rational bounds, hate exists entirely in the realm of raw emotion, where it ceases to serve a useful purpose, and instead becomes a powerful corrosive that eats away at the fabric of civilization itself, at the very ability of people to interact peacefully. It spawns fights among children and among neighbors, it spawns wars, it spawns genocide and slaughter. It's present in every great land and every tiny village. It creates bullies and tyrants. That unquenchable, passionate, rampant flaw is universal throughout mankind.

Do you hate me because I have magic?"
"Of course not."
"Do you love me despite my magic?"
He thought a minute. "No. I love everything about you, and your magic is part of you. That was how I got past the Confessor's magic. If I had loved you despite your power, I wouldn't have been accepting you for who you are. Your magic would have destroyed me.

Nothing marks a man's character better than his attraction to intelligence.

Knowledge is a destination. Truth, the journey.

The only sovereign I can allow to rule me is reason. The first law of reason is this: what exists exists; what is is. From this irreducible, bedrock principle, all knowledge is built. This is the foundation from which life is embraced. Reason is a choice. Wishes and whims are not facts, nor are they a means to discovering them. Reason is our only way of grasping reality–it is our basic tool of survival. We are free to evade the effort of thinking, to reject reason, but we are not free to avoid the penalty of the abyss we refuse to see." -Richard

Righteous anger could be a valuable tool, but it needed to be rational anger. Anger against evil. Anger against wrongs. It had to be wielded the same way any weapon was wielded. It needed to be wielded with reasoned wisdom tempered with maturity. It had to be respected for the damage it could do not only to evil, but also to the innocent. He knew that sometimes ability grew faster than the sense to know when not to use it, like a young man who grew muscles before growing wise enough not to be easily provoked into using them.

There is no such thing as compromising between civilization and savagery. Civilization must always defend itself against savagery or else fall to it.

She had thought she could make a difference. She had thought she could drive back the advancing horde - by the sheer weight of her will, if need be. It was arrogance on her part. The forces of freedom were lost.

Over the millennia the seed of stories planted in the fertile soil of bits and scraps of facts was watered by wishes and began to take root and grow. Eventually, a bountiful fruit of rumors burst forth, to be spread on the wind of whispers that said we hid a fabled hoard of gold. Nothing could convince the believers that it was not true. The truth does not glitter for these people like gold does.

Once lucky, twice confident, and thrice dead.

Fate occasionally touches us all in ways we don't always understand ...

Wrong doing must be punished. If not, it will proliferate until anarchy wears the robes of tolerance and understanding.

It's so good to see you," she whispered privately in the midst of the crowd. When she held him, there was no crowd, there was only him. There was always only him in her heart and soul.

The dead must heed them.

This is how tyrants win the will of the people: with lies.

Winter was coming; the

Get your priorities straight, young man. When a victim is staring at a blade that has just plunged through his chest, the last thing on his mind is criticism about the lack of ornamentation on your hilt.

He'd often said that keeping things to himself was a matter of survival. Barracus had often told her that if she was doing something important she shouldn't tell people anything they didn't need to know. He lived his life by that rule. In fact, he often wouldn't tell Magda about things he thought she didn't need to know. Like why he killed himself.

Wizard's Third Rule
Passion rules reason, for better or for worse.

While it was understandable to be afraid, and no one would expect you not to be, the worst thing you could do was to run from the trouble you had caused. No matter how accidental it was, you didn't try to deny it. You didn't run. You did what you must to right it.

She looked so beautiful in the moonlight, but it wasn't only the way she looked, it was what was inside her, everything from her intelligence and courage to her wit, and the special smile she gave only to him. He would slay a dragon, if there were such a thing, just to see that smile. He knew he would never want anyone else for as long as he lived. He would rather spend the rest of his life alone than with someone else. There could be no one else.

Confidence can be a dangerous thing. Fear can keep you safe, sometimes.

Your life is yours and yours alone. Rise up and live it.

He slipped the baldric over his head, laying the leather across his shoulder and the scabbard at his hip. Knowing the weapon a little more intimately, now, he had a new respect for it.

I often hear people say that they read to escape reality, but I believe that what they're really doing is reading to find reason for hope, to find strength. While a bad book leaves readers with a sense of hopelessness and despair, a good novel, through stories of values realized, of wrongs righted, can bring to readers a connection to the wonder of life. A good novel shows how life can and ought to be lived. It not only entertains but energizes and uplifts readers.

Really? A Confession flower. Why would it be called that? Because a confession is a revelation of the truth. Truth is pure. White is pure. Thus the name.

Something in this world always wants to kill you. Don't forget that.

Are we our bodies? Is a small person less than a big person, then? If we were our bodies, then when we lost an arm, or a leg, would we be less, would we begin to fade from existence? No. We are the same person.
We are not our bodies; we are our thoughts. As they form, they define who we are, and create the reality of our existence.

Everyone to one extent or another must face life's trials. There will always be those who try to influence or even dominate us. We can not allow such things to be an excuse for making the wrong choices. Ultimately each of us lives our own life and is responsible for it. (Terry Goodkind The Confessor)

Even a foolish old woman like me knows that lazy people don't think for themselves; they only think about themselves.

A true Seeker, one who can make a difference, must show himself to be a Seeker. The wizard doesn't point to someone and say, 'Here is the Sword of Truth, you will be the Seeker.' He doesn't really have a choice in the matter.

The reason, as I had learned from my father, is that there is no certainty in death. Because there is no beginning or end, there is no way to measure how long your time.

Boundary wardens, Zedd thought, were tougher than they had a right to be.

Surprise was their greatest weapon. He didn't want to give it up without a very good reason.

Once you teach me something, it's mine to use.

Keep your vision all-inclusive, never allowing it to lock on any one thing...look everywhere at once, see nothing to the exclusion of all else---don't allow the enemy to direct your vision, or you will see what he wishes you to see. He will then come at you as you become bewildered, looking for his attack, and you will lose.
Instead, your vision must open to all there is, never settling, even when cutting. Know your enemy's moves by instinct, not waiting to see them. To dance with death meant to know the enemy's sword and its speed without waiting to see it. Dancing with death meant being one with the enemy, without looking fixedly, so that you could kill him. Dancing with death meant being committed to killing, committed with your heart and soul.

Truth was only a shifting fog to them, to be burned off by the light of their convoluted reasoning. Followers,

Wizard's First Rule: People are stupid

Truth has advocates who seek understanding," Richard said. "Corrupt ideas have miserable little fanatics who attempt to enforce their beliefs through intimidation and brutality ... through faith. Savage force is faith's obedient servant. Violence on an apocalyptic scale can only be born of faith because reason, by its very nature, disarms senseless cruelty. Only faith thinks to justify it.

I want you to use me to create a Confessor.

We all can be only what we are, nothing more, or less.

Evil grants no mercy, and to attempt to appease it is nothing more than a piecemeal surrender to it. Surrender to evil is slavery at best, death at worse. -Richard Rahl

I love her too much to keep her from leaving,

Books served to keep hard-won knowledge safe. They endured.

But you know how Richard feels. He thinks it would be wrong - more than that, he thinks it would be irresponsible to give in to such a wish when reason tells him he must not.

Dalton tugged at his clothes, straightening them. "Is that so." "But the female will cheat on the male. Sometimes, while he is out collecting twigs for their nest, she will let another male take her.

You envisioned the idea of a Confessor for the right reasons. Life is truth. Truth is Life. You wanted a way to seek truth. Such a cause, in the promotion of life, is noble.

That's why your lot in life isn't fate. I don't have any say in much of my life, but I make whatever choices I can make in my own rational best interest. It's my choice to fix those stairs and make the place I live a little better instead of whining and waiting and hoping for someone else to do something for me. I have pride that I know how to do that for myself.

It is not a weakness, child, to be a victim.

Superstition needs no grounding in truth, but once rooted, it grows a strong though twisted tree.

Franca smiled to herself for a time before she spoke. My heart belongs to someone.

Many people must be ruled to thrive. In their selfishness and greed, they see free people as their oppressors. They wish to have a leader who will cut the taller plants so the sun will reach them. They think no plant should be allowed to grow taller than the shortest, and in that way give light to all. They would rather be provided a guiding light, regardless of the fuel, than light a candle themselves.

The first step to believing something is true is wanting to believe it is true ... or being afraid it is.

Wizard's Seventh Rule Life is the future, not the past.

Kahlan,' he said, trying to make his voice sound reassuring, 'being a friend means you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, and I'll still be your friend.

Nicci looked up at Kahlan. "Knives are not my talent." "It's not hard," Kahlan said as she pressed the handle into Nicci's hand. "When the time is right, just stick the pointed end somewhere important in someone you really don't like.

I have to do this, Merrit. I trust you to take care with my life, but if I lose it in the attempt, then I will have died trying to save all life and I don't want you to blame yourself. This is worth doing. I'd rather die trying to preserve the value of life than watch it all end because I failed to do what only I can. - Magda Searus