Terry Goodkind Quotations

I felt like I'd been misplaced in the cosmos and I belonged in Maine.

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

Fantasy allows you bend the world and the situation to more clearly focus on the moral aspects of what's happening. In fantasy you can distill life down to the essence of your story.

Knowledge is a weapon. I intend to be formidably armed.

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

The worse you are at thinking, the better you are at drinking.

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

No one ever goes into battle thinking God is on the other side.

I had to live this long, have the experiences I've had, to create what I do. I knew I wanted to write for years, but I had to be ready so I wouldn't blow it. The move to Maine was the final step.

Ever since I was really little, I've had characters that were in my mind.

I hate telling that story to people who've been struggling for years.

They look at me and I kind of back up in case they go for my throat.

After that, I came back every year. Everyone said, 'Well, when you retire you can move there.' But I said, 'Why should I live my whole life where I don't want to be.'

It allows you to say things that sound very dramatic and get away with it. If you had characters in modern fiction say the same things as they're driving down the street in an Oldsmobile they'd sound ludicrous!

After the book took off, I bought a whole new wardrobe.

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

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

It's only some rice and beans Captain. It's not like I'm giving you Cara's hand in marriage." - Richard

Kahlan guide me. Kahlan teach me. Kahlan protect me. In your light I thrive. In your mercy I am sheltered. In your wisdom I am humbled. I live only to love you. My life is yours.

Every person's life is theirs by right. An individuals life can and must only belong to himself, no to any society or community, or he is then but a slave. No one can deny another person their right to their life, nor seize by force what is produced by someone else, because that is stealing their means to sustain their life. It is treason against mankind to hold a knife to a man's throat and dictate how he must live his life. No society is more important than the individuals who compose it, or else you ascribe supreme importance, not to man, but to any notion that strikes the fantasy of that society at a never ending cost of lives. Reason and reality are the only means to just laws; mindles wishes, if given sovereignty, become deadly masters.

The mice think they are right, but my cat eats them anyways." "This is the point, reality is nothing, perception is everything.

The first law of reason is what exists, exists;what is, is; and from this irreducible bedrock principleall knowledge is build. He said that was the foundation from which life is embraced. He said thinking is a choice, and that wishes and whims are not facts, nor are they means to discover them. Richard said reason is our only way of grasping reality - that it's 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.

The mark of a wise person is being able to reach beyond the truth, to admit they can learn more than they already know. A wise person doesn't string together the beads of unrelated events into a necklace simply to have something they wish to see. A wise person sees the truth even if it is something unexpected. That is the most beautiful necklace to wear - the truth.

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

I will have to admit, though, that I will never look at an apple in quite the same way.

But this was no ordinary chicken. This chicken was evil manifest.

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 a new.

How do you know who I am?' Denna grinned, almost laughed. 'To know Richard is to know who Kahlan is.

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

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

Emotions are the sums created by details, whether those details are true or not.

Wizards First Rule: People are Stupid

Not everyone is willing to embrace liberty; liberty requires not just effort, but risk. Some people choose to delude themselves and see their chains as protective armor.

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

I add my oath of protection to the bone,' he said in a whisper. 'To you now and to any child you may bear in the future. I would trade no day I spend with you for a life of safe slavery. I accepted the post of Seeker of my own free will. And if Darken Rahl takes the whole world into madness, then we will die with a sword in our hands, not chains on our wings. We will not allow it to be easy for them to kill us; they will pay a high price. We will fight with our last breath if need be, and in our death, let us inflict a wound on him that will fester until it claims him.

To question me onceis a simple mistake, Lieutenant. Twice is treason. We execute traitors.-Kahlan

History is rarely made by reasonable men.

I thought I was going to die there, alone. I thought I would never see you again." He seemed to shake off the memory and leaned back on an elbow, gazing at her with a lop-sided smile on his face. "The Shadrin left some scars that aren't healed yet. But I would have to take off my pants to show them to you." "Really?" Kahlan gave a throaty laugh. "I think I better have a look... to see if everything is all right.

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

Grrratch luuug Raaaach aaarg

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

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

Richard," Kahlan said, "what about Siddin? Weselan and Savidlin will be worried sick over him." Her green eyes gazed deep into his. She leaned closer, and whispered, "And we have unfinished business in the spirit house. I believe there is still an apple there we have yet to finish." Her arm tightened around his waist, and a little twist of a smile came to her lips. The shape of the smile caught his breath in his throat.

He put the box in Kahlan's lap. As she picked it up, she gave him the biggest smile he had ever seen. Before he even knew what he had done, he had leaned over and given Kahlan a quick kiss. Her eyes went wide, and she didn't kiss him back, but the feel of her lips shocked him into realizing what he had done. Oh. Sorry," he said. She laughed. "Forgiven.

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

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

Everything is valuable under the right conditions. To a man dying of thirst, water be more precious than gold. To a drowning man, water be of little worth and great trouble.

Honor is honesty to what is, not blind duty to what you wish to be.

Perception was easily accomplished, required little effort, and it never had to stand the test of reality.

Reality is irrelevant; Perception is everything.

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

...You have to accept yourself, who you are. You don't believe. You still fight who you are. Until you accept yourself, until you believe, you won't be able to call forth your Han, your power, except in great anger.

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

Being afraid something is true is accepting the possibility. Accepting the possibility is the first step to believing.

Pity for the guilty is treason to the innocent." -Kahlan

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.

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

Wizard's Ninth Rule A contradiction can not exist in reality. Not in part, nor in whole.

Wizard's Eighth Rule Talga Vassternich. (Deserve Victory)

Richard started to walk away. Zedd called his name. He stopped and turned. Just be glad she cares for you as much as she does. If she didn't, she might have touched you." Richard stared back at him a long moment. "I'm afraid, in a way, she already has.

Only those you trust can betray you" ~ Nathan

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.

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

I am dead. Only vengeance can restore me! Only victory can return my life to me!

To exist in this vast universe for a speck of time is the great gift of life. Our tiny sliver of time is our gift of life. It is our only life. The universe will go on, indifferent to our brief existence, but while we are here we touch not just part of that vastness, but also the lives around us. Life is the gift each of us has been given. Each life is our own and no one else's. It is precious beyond all counting. It is the greatest value we can have. Cherish it for what it truly is..... Your life is yours alone. Rise up and live it.

I am who I am; no more, no less.

no army has ever marched into battle thinking that the Creator had sided with their enemy.

The sun has already set on the days we made those choices. We must concentrate on what we can do tomorrow; we can't relive yesterday.

Once lucky, twice confident, and thrice dead.

Fate does not seek our consent.

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

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.

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.

Right and wrong are not the product of census.

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

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.

Kahlan stood quietly in the shadows, watching, as evil knocked softly on the door.

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.

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.

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.

Teasingly she took the apple from his mouth. Juice ran down his chin. Slowly, deliberately, she leaned over and licked the sweet juice from his chin. I will have to admit though, that I will never look at an apple in quite the same way.

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

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

Bags, and Double Bags!" - Zedd

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

If you are unwilling to defend your right to your own lives, then you are merely like mice trying to argue with owls. You think their ways are wrong. They think you are dinner.

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

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

In the darkest hours we must believe in ourselves.

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.

Culture carries no privilege to exist. Cultures do not have value simply because they are. Some cultures, the world is better off without.

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

Teachings that defy reason defy reality; what defies reality defies life. Defying life is embracing death.

You have one Mord-Sith and one Mother Confessor, here, both in very bad moods. I would suggest you not give us an excuse to lose our temper, or we may never find it again in your lifetime." -Kahlan Amnell

The mice think they are right, but my cat eats them anyways. This is the point, reality is nothing, perception is everything.

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

Everyone makes mistakes. How a person deals with their mistakes is a mark of their character.

When you're the leader, everything is your fault.

Life for the strongest. There is no sympathy for the slain, only admiration for the winner's strength.