“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, quote from Stone of Tears
“We all can be only who we are, no more, no less.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“Only a fool walks into the future backwards.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“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.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“I am dead. Only vengeance can restore me! Only victory can return my life to me!”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“Wizard's Second Rule
The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“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.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“Sometimes that's all life is... One desperate act after another.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“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.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“Knowledge comes as it will. Life's lessons come at the most surprising times.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“...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.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“How do you know who I am?'
Denna grinned, almost laughed. 'To know Richard is to know who Kahlan is.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“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, quote from Stone of Tears
“When yo hold your nose so high in the air, you can't see where you are going.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“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, quote from Stone of Tears
“Your loveliness is not a mask, layered over a rotten core. It blossoms from the beauty inside.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“Life was not fair, it simply existed. If you accidentally stepped on a poison snake, you got bitten. Intentions were irrelevant.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“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.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“You can’t expect to walk through life without stepping in the muck now and again. The important thing is to maintain your footing when you do, and not fall on your face and make it worse.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“Sometimes, that’s all life is: one desperate act after another.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“Zedd had taught him that the creator was simply another name for the force of balance in all things, and not some wise man sitting in judgment.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“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, quote from Stone of Tears
“superstition needs no grounding in truth, but once rooted, it grows a strong though twisted tree.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“The greatest harm can result from the best intentions - Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“Do you know, Richard, that it's the weight of one flake of snow that is one too many, and causes an avalanche? Without that one, last flake, the catastrophe would not happen. When using magic, you must know which is the one snowflake too many before you add its weight. The avalanche will be out of all proportion to what you think the weight of that flake could invoke.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“Darken Rahl shook his fists to the sky. “No!”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from Stone of Tears
“But… all I said was that I was scared."
After what you got to experience? That's smart, kid," I said. "I'm scared, too. Every time something like this happens, it scares me. But being strong doesn't get you through. Being smart does. I've beaten people and things who were stronger than I was, because they didn't use their heads, or because I used what I had better than they did. It isn't about muscle, kiddo, magical or otherwise. It's about your attitude. About your mind."
She nodded slowly and said, "About doing things for the right reasons."
You don't throw down like this just because you're strong enough to do it," I said. "You do it because you don't have much choice. You do it because it's unacceptable to walk away, and still live with yourself later."
She stared at me for a second, and then her eyes widened. "Otherwise, you're using power for the sake of using power."
I nodded. "And power tends to corrupt. It isn't hard to love using it, Molly. You've got to go in with the right attitude or…"
Or the power starts using you," she said. She'd heard the argument before, but this was the first time she said the words slowly, thoughtfully, as if she'd actually understood them, instead of just parroting them back to me. Then she looked up. "That's why you do it. Why you help people. You're using the power for someone other than yourself.”
― Jim Butcher, quote from White Night
“phone, twisted it out of her hand, and slammed it on the hook. “I cry good, don’t I?” she asked with a grin, and she was out the door. “Davenport, Davenport,” Daniel moaned. He gripped handfuls of hair on the side of his head as he watched Jennifer finish the broadcast. “ . . . called by some the smartest man in the department, told me personally that he did not believe that Smithe is guilty of the spectacular murders and that he fears the premature arrest could destroy Smithe’s burgeoning career with the welfare department . . .” “Burgeoning career? TV people shouldn’t be allowed to use big words,” Lucas muttered. “So now what?” Daniel asked angrily. “How in the hell could you do this?” “I didn’t know I was,” Lucas said mildly. “I thought we were having a personal conversation.” “I told you that your dick was going to get you in trouble with that woman,” Daniel said. “What the hell am I going to tell Lester? He’s been out there in front of the cameras making his case and you’re talking to this puss behind his back. You cut his legs out from under him. He’ll be after your head.” “Tell him you’re suspending me. What’s bad? Two weeks? Then I’ll appeal to the civil-service board. Even if the board okays the suspension, it’ll be months from now. We should be able to put it off until this thing is settled, one way or another.” “Okay. That might do it.” Daniel nodded and then laughed unpleasantly, shaking his head. “Christ, I’m glad that wasn’t me getting grilled. You better get out of here before Lester arrives or we’ll be busting him for assault.” At two o’clock in the morning the telephone rang. Lucas looked up from the drawing table where he was working on Everwhen, reached over, and picked it up. “Hello?” “Still mad?” Jennifer asked. “ You bitch. Daniel’s suspending me. I’m giving interviews to everybody except you guys, you can go suck—” “Nasty, nasty—” He slammed the receiver back on the hook. A moment later the phone rang again. He watched it like a cobra, then picked it up, unable to resist. “I’m coming over,” she said, and hung up. Lucas reached for it, to call her, to tell her not to come, but stopped with his hand on the receiver. Jennifer wore a black leather jacket, jeans, black boots, and driving”
― John Sandford, quote from Rules of Prey
“There were two sides fighting—that was true enough—but they weren’t the inner planets versus the Belters. They were the people who thought it was a good idea to kill people who looked or acted differently against the people who didn’t.”
― quote from Leviathan Wakes
“Love is the only freedom in the world because it so elevates the spirit that the laws of humanity and the phenomena of nature do not alter its course.”
― Kahlil Gibran, quote from The Broken Wings
“How strange it all was. Wouldn't it be a lot less messy if everyone just stayed with the people they married in the first place?”
― Liane Moriarty, quote from What Alice Forgot
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