Terry Goodkind

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

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

“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.”

“Came the visions of icy beauty,from the land of death where they dwell.Pursuing their prize and grisly duty,came the thieves of the charm and spell.The bells chimed thrice, and death came a-calling. Alluring of shape though seldom seen,they traveled the breeze on a spark.some fed twigs to their newborn queen,while others invaded the dark.the bells chimed thrice, and death came a-calling.some they called and others they kissedas they traveled on river and wave.with resolve they came and did insist:every one touched to a grave.the bells chimed thrice, and death came a-calling.roving to hunt and gathering to dance,they practiced their dark desiresby casting a hex and a beautiful trance,before feeding the queen's new fires.the bells chimed thrice, and death came a-calling.till he parted the fallsand the bells chimed thrice,till he issued the callsand demanded the price.the bells chimed thrice and death met the mountain.they charmed and embracedand they tried to extollbut he bade them in graceand demanded a soul.the bells fell silent and the mountain slew them all.and the mountain entombed them all.”

“The light of a new day always chases the shadows of the night away, and shows us that the shape of our fears is only the ghost of our own minds.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“You don't love me, Sebastian. You don't have any idea what love really is. 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. When you love yourself, your own existence, then you love someone who can enhance your existence, share it with you, and make it more pleasurable. When you hate yourself and believe your existence is evil, then you can only hate, you can only experience the shell of love, that longing for something good, but you have nothing to base it in but hatred. You taint the very concept of love, Sebastian, with your corrupted longing for it. You want me only to justify your hatred, to be your partner in self-loathing.”

“Truth has advocates who seek understanding," Richard said. "Corrupt ideas have miserable little fanatics who attempt to enforce their beliefs through intimidation and brutality... through faith. Savage force is faith's obedient servant. Violence on an apocalyptic scale can only be born of faith because reason, by its very nature, disarms senseless cruelty. Only faith thinks to justify it.”

“To question me once is a simple mistake, Lieutenant. Twice is treason. We execute traitors.”

“Her heart nearly burst as she at last plunged into his embrace in one wild rush, screaming out her need, her love, her completion, wanting only to know his name so she might give everything of herself to him. His glowing smile was for her and her alone. His lips were for her and her alone. She closed that last bit of space toward him, longing to at last kiss the love of her life, the mate to her soul, the one and only true passion in all of life. His lips were there, at last, she fell into his outstretched arms, into his embrace, into his perfect kiss.In that flawless instant when her lips were just touching his, she saw through him, just beyond him, the merciless unyeilding valley floor hurtling up toward her, and she knew at last his name.Death.”

“You can't argue with the fools in the world. It's better to let them have their way, then trick them when they're not paying attention.”

“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.”

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

“I am who I am; no more, no less.”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“Fate does not seek our consent.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Nothing is ever easy”

“As you learn to be other than Mord-Sith, like I learned as I grew up, 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. 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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Deserve Victory”

“The first law of reason is that what exists, exists; what is, is, and that from this ineducible, bedrock principle, all knowledge is built...that is the foundation from which life is embraced... thinking is a choice...wishes and whims are not facts, nor are they a means to discover them... reason is our only way of grasping reality--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... Reason is the very substance of truth itself. The glory that is life is wholly embraced through reason. In rejecting reason one embraces death.”

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

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

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“Wizard's First Rule: People are stupid”

“The Screelings are loose and the Keeper may win.His assassins have come to rip off your skin.Golden eyes will see you if you try to run.The screelings will get you and laugh like it's fun.Walk away slow or they'll tear you apart,and laugh all day long as they rip out your heart.Golden eyes will see you if you try to stand still.The screelings will get you, for the Keeper they kill.Hack 'em up, chop 'em up, cut 'em to bits,or else they will get you while laughing in fits.If the screelings don't get you the Keeper will try,to reach out and touch you, your skin he will fry.Your mind he will flail, your soul he will take.You'll sleep with the dead, for life you'll forsake.You'll die with the Keeper till the end of time.He hates that you live, your life is the crime.The screelings might get you, it says so in text.If screelings don't get you the Keeper is next,lest he who's born true can fight for life's bond.And that one is marked; he's the pebble in the pond.”

“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.”

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