Terry Goodkind Quotes

I've always said fantasy is sort of 'stealth philosophy'. ~ Terry Goodkind

If an idea was sound, it had to have a life beyond a leader, or the leader had failed. ~ Terry Goodkind

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

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. ~ Terry Goodkind

The cannon of the spirits says that intent is guilt. Failure to successfully carryout the intent does not absolve the guilt. ~ Cara Mordsith ~ Terry Goodkind

Anger made a better warrior than fear. ~ Terry Goodkind

She remembered then what had been at the back of her mind. Barracus had told her that the veil to the world of the dead had glowed a strange green when he passed through it. He had told her that when he had gone through that green wall, that was how he knew that he had crossed over into the underworld. He had called it the green breadth of the spirits. ~ Terry Goodkind

As it turns out, that persistence is a requirement. Thus, he would tell me, you need the dark to show the light, so you shouldn't curse darkness. You needed death to define life. ~ Terry Goodkind

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

If you want to be a slave in life, then continue going around asking others to do for you. They will oblige, but you will find the price is your choices, your freedom, your life itself. They will do for you, and as a result you will be in bondage to them forever, having given your identity away for a paltry price. Then, and only then, you will be a nobody, a slave, because you yourself and nobody else made it so. ~ Terry Goodkind

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? ~ Terry Goodkind

We all can be no more, or less, than who we are. ~ Terry Goodkind

I'd rather look a fool than be right and fail to act. ~ Terry Goodkind

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. ~ Terry Goodkind

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. ~ Terry Goodkind

No self-respecting bird in good health would allow its feathers to look ruffled. No confident cougar would let its fur long remain matted and dirty. ~ Terry Goodkind

Freedom is never easy to keep and can easily be lost. All it takes is willful indifference. ~ Terry Goodkind

Knowledge is a destination. Truth, the journey. ~ Terry Goodkind

A single gleaming sword sat in the middle on a raised portion of the red velvet. Magda noticed an ornate gold and silver scabbard attached to a baldric lying on the floor. The scabbard was so striking that it could only belong with the sword. ~ Terry Goodkind

The truth can seem awfully small and insignificant when compared to a mountain of lies. ~ Terry Goodkind

Do you know, Richard, that it's the weight of one flake of snow that is one too many, and causes an avalanche? Without that one, last flake, the catastrophe would not happen. When using magic, you must know which is the one snowflake too many before you add its weight. The avalanche will be out of all proportion to what you think the weight of that flake could invoke. ~ Terry Goodkind

He is teaching them to eat those seeds," she said through clenched teeth, "out of Raina and Berdine's hands. The two of them were giggling." – Cara ~ Terry Goodkind

If our love's tragedy, why are you my remedy? If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity? ~ Terry Goodkind

Please meet Magda Searus, the first Confessor. ~ Terry Goodkind

Don't make promises, because circumstances have a way of making you regret them. ~ Terry Goodkind

Her life was hers to live by right. She belonged to no one. ~ Terry Goodkind

You can't help how you feel and I understand that. Sometimes a person can't talk their heart out of how it feels, despite how hard you try. ~ Terry Goodkind

Baraccus had told her that while a number of wizards could make things, the same as the ungifted could make things, it was this component of artistic ability in creating new things that took to to another level and made the makers more than true prophets. Magda remembered the passion in his voice as he told her about such things. Making things was in his soul. Creating new things seemed to be his spark of life. ~ Terry Goodkind

At their root, the key and the Confessor both authenticate the truth. The Confessor's power would force the subject to reveal the truth, while all of the coded alignments of the key involve proofing it against reality. Reality is truth. Therefore, both the Confessor and the key need the same formulas to initiate their ultimate function. ~ Terry Goodkind

Faith and feelings are the darkness to reason's light. ~ Terry Goodkind

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

Of all the people who came before us, Magda, you were the only one who represented truth. I want you to know that. - Councilman Sadler ~ Terry Goodkind

Reality is irrelevant; Perception is everything. ~ Terry Goodkind

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

Knowledge comes as it will. Life's lessons come at the most surprising times. ~ Terry Goodkind

The entire mass of people before the palace erupted in a deafening roar. And then, as one, they lunged forward. ~ Terry Goodkind

Wizard's Sixth Rule
The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason. ~ Terry Goodkind

Only you can achieve self-worth for yourself. Any group offering it to you, or demanding it of you, comes bearing chains of slavery. ~ Terry Goodkind

Richard thought a moment. "I don't know, but we have to get across the pass. We're too tired to have to spend tonight fighting shadows again. We must get to the Midlands before dark. And this time, I promise I won't let go of your hand."
Kahlan smiled and squeezed his hand.
I won't let go of yours either. ~ Terry Goodkind

The light of a new day always chases the shadows of the night away, and shows us that the shape of our fears is only the ghost of our own minds. ~ Terry Goodkind

Sometimes, making the wrong choice is better than making no choice. You have the courage to go forward, that is rare. A person who stands at the fork, unable to pick, will never get anywhere. ~ Terry Goodkind

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. ~ Terry Goodkind

You talk like a drunk man walks: in every direction but where he be headed. ~ Terry Goodkind

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! ~ Terry Goodkind

I love her too much to keep her from leaving, ~ Terry Goodkind

War Wizards don't give up. They find a way around any obstacle, even if that way results in their own death. He called the way of the wizard the dance with death. ~ Terry Goodkind

Without delay, Tilly entered the ninth opening, a number that she knew from Baraccus had great meaning on things having to do with magic. ~ Terry Goodkind

We all can be only who we are, no more, no less. ~ Terry Goodkind

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. ~ Terry Goodkind

Think of the solution, not the problem ~ Terry Goodkind

Books were links that spanned such missing human bonds or even times of savagery and its resulting ages of ignorance. ~ Terry Goodkind

«"The trickster", the Mother Confessor said. "I told you that was our name for him"» ~ Terry Goodkind

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. ~ Terry Goodkind

I'm warning you, stay back! This sword has magic.'
'Magic!' the dragon gasped in mock fright. It put a claw to its breast. 'Oh, please, brave man, don't slay me with your magic sword! ~ Terry Goodkind

I don't think I could have written what I did any earlier. ~ Terry Goodkind

I want you to use me to create a Confessor. ~ Terry Goodkind

The sweltering darkness and vast weight of the surrounding silence seemed as eternal as death itself. ~ Terry Goodkind

Fate does not seek our consent. ~ Terry Goodkind

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

The ability to reason is what gives us our capacity to have empathy for others, to value life itself. Our ability to judge right from wrong, to value all life, is only possible through our ability to reason. Reason is what powers morality. ~ Terry Goodkind

I'm going to do the worst possible thing I could do to you and your people - what my grandfather would have done to you. "I'm going to leave you all to suffer the consequences of your own actions. ~ Terry Goodkind

I'm surprised you don't know more about magic, Sister Verna. There is a word that is magic. It can accomplish more than you might think. Maybe you have heard it before. It is the word 'please. ~ Terry Goodkind

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. ~ Terry Goodkind

Came the visions of icy beauty,
from the land of death where they dwell.
Pursuing their prize and grisly duty,
came the thieves of the charm and spell.
The bells chimed thrice, and death came a-calling.

Alluring of shape though seldom seen,
they traveled the breeze on a spark.
some fed twigs to their newborn queen,
while others invaded the dark.
the bells chimed thrice, and death came a-calling.

some they called and others they kissed
as they traveled on river and wave.
with resolve they came and did insist:
every one touched to a grave.
the bells chimed thrice, and death came a-calling.

roving to hunt and gathering to dance,
they practiced their dark desires
by casting a hex and a beautiful trance,
before feeding the queen's new fires.
the bells chimed thrice, and death came a-calling.

till he parted the falls
and the bells chimed thrice,
till he issued the calls
and demanded the price.
the bells chimed thrice and death met the mountain.

they charmed and embraced
and they tried to extoll
but he bade them in grace
and demanded a soul.
the bells fell silent and the mountain slew them all.
and the mountain entombed them all. ~ Terry Goodkind

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 ~ Terry Goodkind

The greatest harm can result from the best intentions - Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander ~ Terry Goodkind

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. ~ Terry Goodkind

Save your anger for the enemy. Here it will do you no good; there, it can overcome fear. Use this time now to teach your sword what to do, so later it will do it without conscious thought. ~ Terry Goodkind

The power needs truth to work. Truth is reality, the laws of nature. They're inseparable. That relationship is represented by the word woven into the hilt. That makes this sword meant to serve more than just the power. It is also meant to serve the truth. This is the Sword of Truth. ~ Terry Goodkind

It isn't what kind of house you have that matters. This is not happiness. It's what kind of mind you have, and how you care for your fellow man
what you can do to help others who can be helped by no one else. ~ Terry Goodkind

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

She understood, now, why life had seemed so empty, so pointless: she herself had rendered it so in refusing to think. ~ Terry Goodkind

People whose magic could affect others in an overt manner didn't need to bite, he imagined, nor would they allow themselves to be held captive ~ Terry Goodkind

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

I understand, Lord Rahl. Find the wizard Zedd and the sorceress Nicci and get them out so that they can heal you of the death inside you so that you can end prophecy and end the threat to the world of life now that the barrier is down. ~ Terry Goodkind

Once lucky, twice confident, and thrice dead. ~ Terry Goodkind

Then you understand the wide range of the totally new and unexpected creations they can sometimes come up with. Most people's minds travel along the same road traveled by everyone else, never straying off the route of conventional wisdom. Makers know no such boundaries. They have a rare ability to make their own roads of thought. Their minds venture through the wilderness of all that exists, combining random bits of knowledge in ways that have never been imagined before. ~ Terry Goodkind

They don't, exactly. The threat of their intervention makes it unnecessary. Wizards call it the paradox of power: if you have power, and are ready, able, and willing to use it, you don't need to exercise your power. ~ Terry Goodkind

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. ~ Terry Goodkind

Have you heard the old adage advising to always grow oleanders at your back door? Nicci asked. ~ Terry Goodkind

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

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

Faith itself, you see, is the key-the magic wand that they wave over the bubbling brew they have concocted to render it 'self-evident'. ~ Terry Goodkind

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. ~ Terry Goodkind

We reap a reward merely in the act of helping others. We never know how, or if, that reward will come back to us. Helping is the reward; none other is needed nor better. ~ Terry Goodkind

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

Killing is a terrible thing, too. I hate killing. But killing isn't necessarily wrong. ~ Terry Goodkind

The Second Rule is that the greatest harm can result from the best intentions. It sounds a paradox, but kindness and good intentions can be an insidious path to destruction. Sometimes doing what seems right is wrong, and can cause harm. The only counter to it is knowledge, wisdom, forethought, and understanding the First Rule. Even then, that is not always enough. ~ Terry Goodkind

Standing there, chisel and mallet in hand, gazing at the statue that was his vision in stone, was a moment when Richard could savor the supreme achievement of having his creation exist exactly as he had originally conceived it. For this singular moment in time, it was complete, and it was his alone. ~ Terry Goodkind

When you insist someone submit to your will, it is accomplished most easily if you give them a small victory so they can retain their dignity while they do as you insist. ~ Kahlan Mother Confessor ~ Terry Goodkind

You don't love me, Sebastian. You don't have any idea what love really is. You can't love anyone or anything until you love your own existence, first. Love can only grow out of a respect for your own life. When you love yourself, your own existence, then you love someone who can enhance your existence, share it with you, and make it more pleasurable. When you hate yourself and believe your existence is evil, then you can only hate, you can only experience the shell of love, that longing for something good, but you have nothing to base it in but hatred. You taint the very concept of love, Sebastian, with your corrupted longing for it. You want me only to justify your hatred, to be your partner in self-loathing. ~ Terry Goodkind

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. ~ Terry Goodkind

Moral compromise rejects the concept of right and wrong. It says that everyone is equal, all desires are equally valid, all action is equally valid, so everyone should compromise to get along. ~ Terry Goodkind

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. ~ Terry Goodkind

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

Your loveliness is not a mask, layered over a rotten core. It blossoms from the beauty inside. ~ Terry Goodkind

Desperately, his mind raced as he cried, trying to make time go backward, to do it again differently, to ignore the voices, to keep hold of her hand, to save her. ~ Terry Goodkind

If God is so powerful, can he create a rock which he cannot lift? ~ Terry Goodkind

Others made you into who you were. You made yourself into what you have become. ~ Terry Goodkind

Chickens can move and flop for hours after their heads are cut off. They have no heartbeat either," Naja said, "and that doesn't involve magic. ~ Terry Goodkind