Goodkind Quotes & Sayings

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

He remembered Zedd telling him that old age meant that the only thing he really knew was that he would never know it all, much less know enough. — Terry Goodkind

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

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

Don't try to fix the past, dear one - it can't be done. — Terry Goodkind

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

This was life as it should be lived - proud, reasoned, and a slave to no other man. — Terry Goodkind

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

The chicken thing let out a whispering cackle. — Terry Goodkind

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

Richard clenched the strip in his fist. It's some kind of riddle. I hate riddles. — Terry Goodkind

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

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

Enemies,' the wizard said, 'are the price of honour. — Terry Goodkind

Not all choices in life are ones you would like, but those are all that are presented to you. Sometimes you must choose what is better for the ones you love than yourself. — Terry Goodkind

Richard looked up at the beautiful, big pines spreading over them, illuminated in the firelight. A spark of understanding lit in his mind. He saw the branches stretched out with murderous intent in a years-long struggle to reach the sunlight and dispatch its neighbors with its shade. Success would give space for its offspring, many of which would also shrivel in the shade of the parent. Several close neighbors of the big pine were withered and weak, victims all. It was true. The design of nature was success by murder. — Terry Goodkind

You mean that it's not only what he does that makes him dangerous, but also what he feels justified in doing? — Terry Goodkind

Take care, Seeker. You have the gift. Use it. Use everything you have to fight. Don't give in. Don't let him rule you. If you are to die, die fighting with everything you have, everything you know. That is the way of a dragon. — Terry Goodkind

When you hear the word 'tyranny of magic' as we heard from Elder Caldell, you will know that it is the calling card of killers. Don't be fooled by their platitudes that is for the common good. Their real power is to strip us of our abilities so that they may easily conquer and rule us. — Terry Goodkind

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

The Grace represents the interconnection of everything, the world of life and the world of the dead, Additive and Subtractive, as well as the spark of the gift that runs though it all. The Grace does more though, than simply represent Additive and Subtractive magic, Creation and obliteration, life and death, it connects them into a cohesive whole. The power of Orden deals with life, death and the whole nature of existence so the key also needs to have both sides. It needs both Additive and Subtractive, life and death to be complete. — Terry Goodkind

But if used for retribution, magic is vengeance incarnate. — Terry Goodkind

People, if they don't take the lives of others, have the right to live their life. — Terry Goodkind

My mother always said that if you predicted rain long enough, sooner or later you would get wet and be proven right. — Terry Goodkind

That smile might have been on his lips, but it was not in his eyes. — 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

The tightly focused battle was an orgy of slaughter. Limbs, heads, and parts of bodies from men and women alike littered the ground. — 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

Wishing gets people killed," he often said. "Using your head gets you home. — Terry Goodkind

Never let a beautiful woman pick your path for you when there is a man in her line of sight — Terry Goodkind

Safety is only an illusion when evil is on the hunt. I can't stand by and watch. I have to act. — Terry Goodkind

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. — Terry Goodkind

Your life belongs to you alone. Rise up and live it!" ~Richard Rahl — Terry Goodkind

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

Magda smiled. I'm familiar with strange objects left in corners. My husband was a maker, though I rarely heard that name applied to him. — Terry Goodkind

This is the Sword of Truth. — Terry Goodkind

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

Anger is a shield for the power of the sword's magic, so that helped. — Terry Goodkind

Each day lived," Richard said, "is one less of our limited number of days gone forever. Time therefore has relevance and meaning to us. Life is precious, so time is precious. Time is how we put value on things such as love. We give our most precious commodity, our time-a part of our lives-over to those we love. — Terry Goodkind

Your only chance is to let the truth escape. — Terry Goodkind

Though she was ungifted, she could clearly feel the power of the magic the sword now possessed. It was power unlike anything she ever imagined. It churned the way the storm had. It held more power than the storm had. It was fury and rage and love and life all folded together over and over, blending them into the finest layers of something new, something remarkable. This was now a weapon unlike any other, more than any other. — Terry Goodkind

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. — Terry Goodkind

The people who most often invited trouble were the willfully ignorant who didn't want to believe trouble was possible, so they dismissed the potential for it. You couldn't be ready for what you never considered or were unwilling to consider. — Terry Goodkind

Third Time tricked, marks the fool. — Terry Goodkind

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

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. — 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

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

There is more to being in love than just jumping into bed, you know. Like just being close, in one another's arms. — Terry Goodkind

She shook her head with a sigh. "You talk like a drunk man walks: in every direction but where he be headed." She — Terry Goodkind

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. — Terry Goodkind

of his past captors. Any warrior would. He — 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

Your life is your own. Rise up and live it. — Terry Goodkind

The only thing you can be is yourself nothing more nothing less — Terry Goodkind

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. — Terry Goodkind

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. — Terry Goodkind

Reason and reality are the only means to just laws; mindless wishes, if given sovereignty, become deadly masters. — Terry Goodkind

One day Mrs. Goodkind said,
'Pickles, you are not a bad cat.
You are not a good cat.
You are good and bad.
And bad and good.
You are a mixed-up cat.
What you need is a good home.
Then you will be good.' — Esther Averill

Powerful people who lose power do not feel anguish and heartache like a jilted lover. — Terry Goodkind

We have a responsibility to life. The living should be our only concern. Since it is the Sword of Truth - a weapon created to fight for the truth - people won't have reason to expect that it could also actually be the key to the power of Orden. Quinn, you know how dangerous the power of Orden is. Used in the wrong way. it very well could breach the veil and destroy the world of life. We have to do everything in our power to see to it that such a thing never comes to pass. — Terry Goodkind

There were those who loved liberty, who cried out to live their own lives, to strive, to rise above, to achieve, and those bent on the mindless equality of stagnation brought about through the enforcement of an artificial, arbitrary, gray uniformity
those who wanted to transcend through their own effort, and those who wanted others to think for them and were willing to pay the ultimate price. — Terry Goodkind

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 — Terry Goodkind

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

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! — Terry Goodkind

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. — Terry Goodkind

Freedom requires effort if it is to be won and vigilance if it is to be maintained. People just don't value freedom until it is taken away. — Terry Goodkind

To love another, you must first love yourself. Love yourself, Magda, so you can love him. Love yourself enough to let your memories of me ease away from closing your heart. Love yourself enough to know that you deserve happiness. - Barracus — Terry Goodkind

It was important for a person not to let their body or mind become slow and dull. Oba believed it was important to learn new things. He believed it was important to grow. He thought it was important for a person to use what they had learned. That was how people grew. — 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

You'll find that being a friend is to like a person for who they are, even the parts you don't understand. The reasons you like them makes the things you don't understand unimportant. You don't have to understand, or do the same, or live their lives for them. — Terry Goodkind

Back to sleep, my babies," she said in a soothing voice. "Pa just went to the privy. I'm only taking him a light to see his way back. You know how your pa stumbles his toes in the night and then curses us for it. Back to sleep, the both of you. Everything is all right. Just takin' your pa a lamp. — Terry Goodkind

I wish people had half the honor of dragons. — Terry Goodkind

stay his arm. "Dalton, don't! It's bad luck to kill a raven!" Her intervention, and the bird unexpectedly ducking, caused him to miss an easy kill. — 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

But in the end, we can't live our lives by 'what if' and 'if only.' We can only do the best we can to the best of our ability based on what we know. That's why the truth is so important. — Terry Goodkind

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

Slaves, slaves to anything or anyone, despite how much they abhor it, will often cling to that slavery out of fear the alternative would be insufferable. — Terry Goodkind

There is magic in sincere forgiveness - magic to heal. — Terry Goodkind

We have people like that in our world, too. People who say that freedom is no longer practical, that we must surrender it for a greater common good." "Fear them," she whispered. "They are the heart of evil. They tolerate tyranny, excuse it, compromise with it. In so doing they always bring savagery and death upon the rest of us. — Terry Goodkind

Cut the attacker down, to cut them down to their very soul — Terry Goodkind

Surprise is sometimes the best advantage a warrior can have. — Terry Goodkind

Magic intensifies and concentrates passions, strengthening not only joy, but ruinous passions as well, and in this way they may become obsessions, and unbearable unless released. -Joseph Anders — Terry Goodkind

Only when all must bow to the same law is every person free. — Terry Goodkind

The truth has value. — Terry Goodkind

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

My Stephen King for his Ayn Rand. My Terry Goodkind for his T.S. Elliot. Not a bang but a whimper. — Shannon Celebi

You either had to fight evil as you encountered it, or evil would come to control your life. — Terry Goodkind

One of the things that defines our character is how we handle mistakes. — Terry Goodkind

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. — Terry Goodkind

The best we can to the best of our ability based on what we know. That's why the truth is so important. Evil abhors those with the ability. — Terry Goodkind

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. — Terry Goodkind

wire-wound hilt greeted his fingers. The sword lay on the ground beside him. — Terry Goodkind

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 — Terry Goodkind

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

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

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. — Terry Goodkind

And right now you're doing it backwards. You are only concentrating on why the problem is impossible. You are not thinking of the solution. — Terry Goodkind

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. — Terry Goodkind