Terry Goodkind Quotes - Page 3

Wizard's Tenth Rule Willfully turning aside from the truth is treason to one's self.

I wish people had half the honor of dragons.

That's what friends are for-to be strong for you when you need a moment to find your own strength.

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

Celebrating faith over reason is merely a way of denying what is, in favor of embracing any whim that strikes your fancy.

Once committed to fight, cut. Everything else is secondary. Cut. That is your duty, your purpose, your hunger. There is no rule more important, no commitment that overrides that one. Cut. Cut from the void, not from bewilderment. Cut the enemy as quickly and directly as possible. Cut decisively, resolutely. Cut into the enemy’s strength. Flow through the gaps in his guard. Cut him. Cut him down utterly. Don’t allow him a breath. Crush him. Cut him without mercy to the depths of his spirit." -Richard Rahl

Life is the future, not the past. The past can teach us, through experience, how to accomplish things in the future, comfort us with cherished memories, and provide the foundation of what has already been accomplished. But only the future holds life. To live in the past is to embrace what is dead. To live life to its fullest, each day must be created anew.

There is no such thing as pure good or pure evil, least of all in people. In the best of us there are thoughts or deeds that are wicked, and in the worst of us, at least some virtue. An adversary is not one who does loathsome acts for their own sake. He always has a reason that to him is justification. My cat eats mice. Does that make him bad? I don't think so, and the cat doesn't think so, but I would bet the mice have a different opinion.

Every person's life is theirs by right. An individual's life can and must belong only to to himself, not to any society or community, or he is then but a slave.

Those who have come here to hate should leave now; for in their hate, they only betray themselves.

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

There is nothing that exists that has only one side. Even a piece of paper, thin as it is, has two sides.

Nothing gained without cost is valued. Freedom has a cost, and all will bear it so all will value and preserve it.

It is said that the greatest cruelty is drawn from those with the kindest hearts.

Enemies,' the wizard said, 'are the price of honour.

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

...Wizard's Fifth Rule: Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie.

Laugh all you want. I know my own worth and don't need to prove it to someone who doesn't know theirs.

Faith and feelings are the warm marrow of evil. Unlike reason, faith and feelings provide no boundary to limit any delusion, any whim. They are virulent poison, giving the numbing illusion of moral sanction to every depravity ever hatched. Faith and feelings are the darkness to reason’s light. Reason is the very substance of truth itself. The glory that is life is wholly embraced through reason. In rejecting it, in rejecting reason, one embraces death.

Intent is guilt. Failure to successfully carry out the intent does not absolve the guilt.

The only thing you can be is yourself nothing more nothing less

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

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

His face set in grim determination, Richard slogged ahead, his fingers reaching up to touch the tooth under his shirt. Loneliness, deeper than he had never known, sagged his shoulders. All his friends were lost to him. He knew now that his life was not his own. It belonged to his duty, to his task. He was the Seeker. Nothing more. Nothing less. Not his own man, but a pawn to be used by others. A tool, same as his sword, to help others, that they might have the life he had only glimpsed for a twinkling. He was no different from the dark things in the boundary. A bringer of death.

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.