Terry Goodkind quotes:

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

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.

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

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.

Once you place that crown of liar on your head, you can take it off again, but it leaves a stain for all time.

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 wordsWe live only to serve. Our lives are yours."

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

If you care about yourself, you should care about learning - even learning simple things. You come to have pride in yourself only by accomplishing things, even from fixing some old stairs...Others can't grant you self-respect, even others who care about you. You have to earn self-respect yourself.

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

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

Knowing when to fight is just as important as knowing how.

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.

Love is not about what you want. It's about finding happiness for the one you love.

Love is a passion for life shared with another person. You fall in love with a person who you think is wonderful. It's your deepest appreciation of the value of that individual, and that individual is a reflection of what you value most in life. Love, for sound reasons, can be one of life's greatest rewards.

Mercy is a contingency plan, devised by the guilty in the eventuality that they are caught. Justice is the domain of the just. - Richard Rahl

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

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

Bags!

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

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.

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

When the whole world is crazy, it doesn't pay to be sane.

He was the monster. That was what Kahlan saw. And she had sent him away in a collar to be tortured. Because he was a monster that needed to be collared, a beast.

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.

I never could understand why some writers treat women as helpless. Every woman I know is strong in her own unique way.

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

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

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

If the road is easy, you're likely going the wrong way.

The foundations of some formerly strong lands became so riddled with termites of diminished purpose, so decayed with the decadence of smug moderation, and so emaciated with the vacillating aims of appears, that even when they saw the enemy coming and did resist, they were easily toppled when the Imperial Order finally pushed.

Knowledge is a destination. Truth, the journey.

If something is wrong, it matters not if a thousand men are for it; you must still oppose it. If something is just, no amount of popular outcry should stay you from your course.

In the end, people believed what they wanted to believe. The truth had very little to do with it.

Hesitation is a mistake that invites defeat. I would not be Mord-Sith had I not hesitated when I was young." - Cara

The training of a Mord-Sith takes years - to learn to handle the pain. I guess it's also why only women are Mord-Sith, men are too weak.

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

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

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

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.

The Wizard's First Rule: People are stupid; given proper motivation almost anyone will believe almost anything.

Wizard's Second Rule The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.

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

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

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!

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

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

...think of the solution, not the problem. If your mind was filled only with thoughts of why you were going to lose, then you couldn't think of how to win.

...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.

...you'll find that being a friend is to like a person for who they are, even the parts you don't understand. You don't have to understand, or do the same, or live their lives for them. If you truly care for them, then you want them to be who they are; that was why you liked them in the first place.

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

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.'

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.

Bags, and Double Bags!" - Zedd

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

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

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

But if used for retribution, magic is vengeance incarnate.

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

Cara burst into a hearty laugh. She clapped Richard on the back as he walked passed. "I like her, Lord Rahl. You may keep her.

Cara waggled a hand over the two of them. "It works better with your clothes off." Richard frowned. His voice came as a hoarse croak. "What?" She seemed mystified by the question. "I believe you will find such things work better without clothes." She put her hands to her hips. "I thought you would know at least that much.

Charity, if you have the means, is a personal choice, but charity which is expected or compelled is simply a polite word for slavery.

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

Cut the attacker down, to cut them down to their very soul

Dance with me, Death, I am ready.

Dancing with death meant being committed to killing, committed with your heart and soul.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Everybody knows it. Wizards are supposed to have beards. It's common knowledge.

Everyone has an effect on others. Some people inspire others to do great things. Some take people into crime with them. Those with the gift affect those around them even more.

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.

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.

Fate does not seek our consent.

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

Fools who won't see the truth are deadly.

Grrratch luuug Raaaach aaarg

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.

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.

History is rarely made by reasonable men.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

I love you," she whispered. Richard pulled her tight against him. His fingers traced a trail down the bumps of her spine. "I feel so frustrated that there aren't any better words than "I love you,"" he said. "It doesn't seem enough for the way I feel about you. I'm sorry there aren't any better words to tell you." "They are words enough for me." "Then, I love you, Kahlan. A thousand times, a million times, I love you. Forever.

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.

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.

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

I wish people had half the honor of dragons.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

In the darkest hours we must believe in ourselves.

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

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

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

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.

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

Kahlan ambled toward the door. "Well, my breasts aren't as large as yours Berdine." She slowed as she passed Raina. "I think Raina's hands would fit mine better.

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.

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

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

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

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

Many people believe everything others say, even though what they see with their own eyes, should be enough to tell them otherwise.