Wizard’s Rules

In honor and respectful memory of Terry Goodkind, the author of one of the greatest worlds ever to have been created through his work on the novel series The Sword of Truth, I am placing the list of Wizards Rules here.

Wizard’s First Rule

“People are stupid. They can be made to believe any lie because either they want to believe it’s true or because they are afraid it’s true.”

“People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it’s true, or because they’re afraid it might be true. Peoples’ heads are full of knowledge, facts and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.”

The mind is ruled by psychological biases. Such biases twist the mind into believing some things are true, when they are not. Two of the most powerful biases are hope (or, described differently, optimistic belief that something may be true) and fear. When someone hopes something may or may not be true, such as that a friend did not betray him, then he may actually believe in a lie told to him by another, or told to himself, that the friend did not betray him, when in actuality the friend did. Similarly, when someone fears something may or may not be true, such as that one is not competent enough to fill one’s job responsibilities, then he may actually believe that such is true. Instead of allowing biases to twist one’s brief, one must try and escape the effect of the biases and determine the actual truth of a situation.

Wizard’s Second Rule

“The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.”

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.

Wizard’s Third Rule

“Passion rules reason, for better or for worse.”

Letting your emotions control your reason may cause trouble for yourself and those around you.

Wizard’s Fourth Rule

“There is magic in sincere forgiveness, magic to heal; in forgiveness you grant, and more so in the forgiveness you receive.”

Wizard’s Fifth Rule

“Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie.”

Wizard’s Sixth Rule

“The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason.”

“The most important rule there is, the Wizard’s Sixth Rule: the only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason. The first law of reason is this: what exists, exists, what is, is and from this irreducible bedrock principle, all knowledge is built. It 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 is 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 that we refuse to see. Faith and feelings are the darkness to reason’s light. In rejecting reason, refusing to think, one embraces death.”

Quoting Zedd: “…most important rule there is…The Sixth Rule is the hub upon which all rules turn. It is not only the most important rule, but the simplest. Nonetheless, it is the one most often ignored and violated, and by far the most despised. It must be wielded in spite of the ceaseless, howling protests of the wicked.”

Wizard’s Seventh Rule

“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 anew. As rational, thinking beings, we must use our intellect, not a blind devotion to what has come before, to make rational choices.”

Wizard’s Eighth Rule

“Talga Vassternich.”

High D’Haran for “Deserve Victory”.

“Be justified in your convictions. Be completely committed. Earn what you want and need rather than waiting for others to give you what you desire.”

Wizard’s Ninth Rule

“A contradiction can not exist in reality. Not in part, nor in whole.”

“To believe in a contradiction is to abdicate your belief in the existence of the world around you and the nature of the things in it, to instead embrace any random impulse that strikes your fancy – to imagine something is real simply because you wish it were. A thing is what it is, it is itself. There can be no contradictions.

Faith is a device of self-delusion, a sleight of hand done with words and emotions founded on any irrational notion that can be dreamed up. Faith is the attempt to coerce truth to surrender to whim. In simple terms, it is trying to breath life into a lie by trying to outshine reality with the beauty of wishes. Faith is the refuge of fools, the ignorant, and the deluded, not of thinking, rational men.

In reality, contradictions cannot exist. To believe in them you must abandon the most important thing you possess: your rational mind. The wager for such a bargain is your life. In such an exchange, you always lose what you have at stake.”

Wizard’s Tenth Rule

“Willfully turning aside from the truth is treason to one’s self.”

Wizard’s Eleventh Rule

“The rule of all rules. The rule unwritten. The rule unspoken since the dawn of history… But Barracus wanted you to know that it’s the secret to using a war wizard’s power. The only way to express it, to make sure that you would grasp what he was intending to tell you, was to give you a book unwritten to signify the rule unwritten.”

This rule cannot be quoted. My best interpretation from the context is the following: To embrace life you must seek and verify what is true. Strength used from hatred will betray you and lead you to harm.

Wizard’s Twelfth Rule

“You can destroy those who speak the truth, but you cannot destroy the truth itself.”

Truth is infinite (unending), constant (unchanging) and immortal (eternal). Destroying those who are loyal to truth is unprofitable (not beneficial) and superfluous (unnecessary or a waste of time).

Wizard’s Thirteenth Rule

“There will always be those who hate and always will be.”

Hate is a fact of humanity and is a part of human nature. We cannot change the nature of humanity by force, violence, and imprisonment (taking away one’s freedom). The only weapon that can be used against hate, and succeed, is one wielded with truth and love. Any other weapon will either be unsuccessful or make the hatred more powerful.

Wizard’s Fourteenth Rule

“In this world, everyone must die. None of us has any choice in that. Our choice is how we wish to live.”

We cannot change the natural cycle of life. What we do have power over, however, is how we create the world in which we presently live. Those who are loyal to the Wizards Rules possess the power to do just that.

Bringing sight to the blind, clarity to the mud, and shining the light of day on the invisible violence of government. Creating Rebellious Philosophy, Risky Freedom, and Dangerous Thinking.