Terry Goodkind Quotes

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

— 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

“Knowledge is a destination. Truth, the journey.”

— Terry Goodkind

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

— Terry Goodkind

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.

— Terry Goodkind

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

— Terry Goodkind

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

— Terry Goodkind

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.

— Terry Goodkind

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

— 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

“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

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

— Terry Goodkind

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

— Terry Goodkind

Zedd used to tell me that if the road is easy, you're likely going the wrong way. - Richard

— Terry Goodkind

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

— Terry Goodkind

“Standing for truth is everything. Truth is power. Don't ever forget that.”

— Terry Goodkind

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

— Terry Goodkind

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.

— Terry Goodkind

“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.”

— 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

He slipped the baldric over his head, laying the leather across his shoulder and the scabbard at his hip. Knowing the weapon a little more intimately, now, he had a new respect for it.

— Terry Goodkind

Third Time tricked, marks the fool.

— Terry Goodkind

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

— Terry Goodkind

“The good in life is what quenches hatred in normal people, the way a smile can calm a quarrel. But in those people who carry this flaw, their hatred burns so hot they come to hate what is good in life specifically because they don't want to stop hating. Hatred becomes the driving purpose of their lives. They live to hate.”

— Terry Goodkind

Righteous anger could be a valuable tool, but it needed to be rational anger. Anger against evil. Anger against wrongs. It had to be wielded the same way any weapon was wielded. It needed to be wielded with reasoned wisdom tempered with maturity. It had to be respected for the damage it could do not only to evil, but also to the innocent. He knew that sometimes ability grew faster than the sense to know when not to use it, like a young man who grew muscles before growing wise enough not to be easily provoked into using them.

— Terry Goodkind

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

— Terry Goodkind

“I have found that people do not often want to believe the truth. It is of little value to them.”

— Terry Goodkind

“There seemed to be some inner need in many people to believe that the world would end in some cataclysmic event. Usually in the very near future.”

— Terry Goodkind

Everyone to one extent or another must face life's trials. There will always be those who try to influence or even dominate us. We can not allow such things to be an excuse for making the wrong choices. Ultimately each of us lives our own life and is responsible for it. (Terry Goodkind The Confessor)

— Terry Goodkind

“Corrupt ideas have miserable little fanatics who attempt to enforce their beliefs through intimidation and brutality ... through faith.”

— 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

“I know you and I know the way you feel, but you have to listen to me. The time has not yet come. It may never come. You may think I'm wrong in this, but if you close your eyes to the reality of what is, in favor of what you would wish just because you're the Mother Confessor and feel responsible for the people of the Midlands, then there is no reason for us to bother hoping we'll be together again because we won't. We will be dead, and the cause of freedom will be dead.”

— Terry Goodkind

“Death, though, was part of life. There could not be life without death always shadowing it.”

— 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

“Please meet Magda Searus, the first Confessor.”

— 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

“Information is the coin of war.”

— 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

“The Grace represented the world of life, the world of the dead, and the way magic and Creation linked them. The outer circle of the design represented the beginning of the infinite world of the dead. Inside the outer circle was a square, its points just touching the outer circle. Inside the square was another circle, just touching the insides of the square. The area between those two circles with the square represented the world of life. The inside circle was life's beginnings, the outer circle its end, where souls crossed through the veil into the eternity of the underworld. An eight-pointed star inside the smaller circle was the Light of Creation. Lines from the star's points radiated out across the inner circle. the square. and across the outer circle that also symbolized the veil to the wold of the dead. The lines radiating outward from the Light represented the spark of the gift that journeyed with everyone from birth, through life, and on into death.”

— 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

“Have you heard the old adage advising to always grow oleanders at your back door? Nicci asked.”

— Terry Goodkind

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

— 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

“I have to do this, Merrit. I trust you to take care with my life, but if I lose it in the attempt, then I will have died trying to save all life and I don't want you to blame yourself. This is worth doing. I'd rather die trying to preserve the value of life than watch it all end because I failed to do what only I can. - Magda Searus”

— 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

“You envisioned the idea of a Confessor for the right reasons. Life is truth. Truth is Life. You wanted a way to seek truth. Such a cause, in the promotion of life, is noble.”

— Terry Goodkind

“You are not struggling to rule, but to give others a chance at ruling their own lives. So stop ruling and let them live those lives.”

— 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

“Make sure the shadow you chase is not the one you cast.”

— Terry Goodkind

“One of the things that defines our character is how we handle mistakes.”

— Terry Goodkind