The majority of the books on my list are Classic Literature as well as Inspirational but I couldn't leave out one of my favorite authors: Terry Goodkind and his 11 book series The Sword of Truth.
The series contains eleven books, each revealing a new wizards rule. The books are: Wizards First Rule, Stone of Tears, Blood of the Fold, Temple of the Winds, Soul of the Fire, Faith of the Fallen, Pillars of Creation, Naked Empire, Chainfire, Phantom, and Confessor.
Here are the Wizards Rules - where to find them in the book, and the reasoning behind them. Although these books are fantasy the ideas and morals behind them have touched my soul. I hope this inspires you to read the books. (The TV series isn't nearly as good. Then again, I prefer the book to the movie or TV show every single time.)
Wizard's First Rule:
Wizard's First Rule bk1 Chapter 36, page 397
People will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they're afraid it might be 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 its 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.
Wizard's Second Rule:
Stone of Tears bk2 Chapter 63, page 634
The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.
It sounds 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.
Wizard's Third Rule:
Blood of the Fold bk3: Chapter 43, page 360
Passion rules reason.
Letting your emotions control your reason may cause trouble for yourself and those around you.
Wizard's Fourth Rule:
Temple of the Winds bk4: Chapter 41, page 318
There is magic in sincere forgiveness; in the forgiveness you give, but more so in the forgiveness you receive.
Forgiving and being forgiven are powerful elements of healing for the soul. Forgiving others grants by the giving of forgiveness but more so one receives self healing by the necessity of letting go of bitterness through forgiveness of others.
The meaning of this rule can be a little vague but it actually a universal concept.
We can be injured with arrows and swords and bullets, by accident or artifice; these are physical injuries, our bodies can heal them naturally, even if there is a scar left to remind us of the wound. They may be painful, and the memory of them may hurt, but we can recover from this.
Emotional wounds are not the same. If you have ever been truly hurt and betrayed by someone you love very deeply and trust unequivocally, you can understand; that is a hurt beyond anything else you can withstand, one that strikes at your very soul and fills your heart with anguish. This kind of hurt can destroy a person that can shrug off anything but a mortal wound, and alter you in ways that you cannot foresee--sometimes for the worse.
To forgive someone who has harmed you serves two purposes: to let them know that you no longer resent them for wronging you, and to release the anger of their actions from your heart.
Carrying an emotional burden is damaging and unhealthy in the extreme. Forgiving someone is thus a way to vent your own emotion without hurting someone else, while at the same time helping your own healing process along. False forgiveness, forgiving someone without truly meaning it, is not the same, because it does not do you any good, and in the end does not help them either. That is the magic of sincerely forgiving someone.
To be forgiven for your wrongs, your sins, and misgivings, is altogether a different sort of thing. To know that person forgives your hurtful actions, that they do not resent you, is like the lifting of a great weight from your shoulders. It is the utmost kindness they can pay, to sincerely forgive you your shortcomings, and can heal emotional damage like nothing else.
I recently learned that a long time ago, there were members of the Catholic religion called confessors. A confessor was a person who, while not a Saint, was considered pious enough that they could take a confession of sin, and grant pardon for it. There are a few famous examples of confessors, but most of them are still obscure, since it was a long time ago, and the only readily available example is King Edward the Confessor.
There are many parallels between real life and the Sword of Truth series, and this is one.
Confessors exist in the Midlands to be the final arbiters of justice--they can use their ability to compel a person to confess their most heinous acts of violence and debauchery, their sins, without hesitation. However, the one so touched by the Confessor's power is, in a way, given forgiveness for his sins: he has no ability to regret his actions, love for the Confessor is all that remains. Even if he is sentenced to death after his confession, and even if the Confessor herself kills him, there is only love for her in his mind.
The magic of forgiveness is also connected to the Sword of Truth itself. The first dimension of its magic is that of rage compounded with rage, pure hatred that seeks to destroy anything that stands in its way. The second dimension is that of love, forgiveness, that which turns the blade white, allowing the Seeker to slay even those he loves, allowing nothing to stand in his way. This is the way Richard was able to kill Denna: he loved her, in a way, and forgave her for her actions. He gave her a great kindness, to forgive her, and released her from her morbid duties as a Mord-Sith, absolving her of her guilt and sending her to be with the good spirits. Richard's act of forgiveness relieved Denna of a life of torture and madness, healing her insanity.
The sword is also the key to a greater magic, for only one with the ability in his heart to forgive the most egregious of transgressions is worthy to wield that power.
Wizard's Fifth Rule
Soul of the Fire bk5: Chapter 28, page 205
Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie.
People will lie to deceive you from what they truly mean to do. Watching the actions they take will prove their true intentions.
Wizard's Sixth Rule
Faith of the Fallen bk6: Chapter 41, page 319
The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason.
"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. Misery, iniquity, and utter destruction lurk in the shadows outside its full light, where half-truths snare the faithful disciples, the deeply feeling believers, the selfless followers. Faith and feelings are the warm marrow of evil. Unlike reason, faith and feelings provide no boundary to limit any delusion, any whim. They are a virulent poison, giving the numbing illusion of moral sanction to every depravity ever hatched. Faith and feelings are the darkness to reason’s light. Reason is the very substance of truth itself. The glory that is life is wholly embraced through reason, through this rule. In rejecting it, in rejecting reason, one embraces death."
"The only sovereign I can allow to rule me 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 reasons light. In rejecting reason, refusing to think, one embraces death.”
Wizard's Seventh Rule
Pillars of Creation bk7: Chapter 60, page 549
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
Naked Empire bk8: Chapter 61, page 626
Talga Vassternich. translates to: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
Chainfire bk9: Chapter 48, page 489
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. 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."
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 breathe 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.
Wizard's Tenth Rule
Phantom bk10: Chapter 12, page 127
Willfully turning aside from the truth is treason to one's self.
"People who for whatever reason don't want to see the truth can be acutely hostile to it and shrill in their denunciation of it. They frequently turn their venomous antagonism on whoever dares to point out that truth ... To those seeking the truth; it's a matter of simple, rational, self interest to always keep reality in view. Truth is rooted in reality, after all, not the imagination."
Wizard's Eleventh and Final Rule
Confessor bk11: Throughout
The "Rule Unspoken", the "Rule Unwritten", "The rule from the beginning of time."
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The brackets above contain the rule unwritten as Terry Goodkind wrote it. It is the most important rule for each and every individual. When this rule is broken all other rules of truth are violated.
The final rule cannot directly be quoted, yet using the final book of the series "Confessor" it can be understood. In Confessor, Richard goes through great struggle to obtain a book left for him by Baraccus, a great wizard from the past. Richard believes this book entitled Secrets to a War Wizard's Power will be a means for him to finally understand how to use his gift and therefore in essence be the solution to major problems. Once he obtains the book however, its pages are blank and his grandfather Zedd informs him that Baraccus left it blank to illustrate the meaning of the rule unwritten. Using this knowledge Richard reasons that "The Book of Counted Shadows" could not possibly be the key to the boxes of orden, and that in fact the Sword of Truth was the only way to harness Orden's power of life itself. Incalculable effort had been put into obtaining the knowledge contained in "The Book of Counted Shadows" by Jagang and the Sisters of the Dark, and in the past that it was well protected, yet when the Sisters of the Dark finally used it that effort was all for nothing. As far as the knowledge within the book was concerned, there was 'nothing in it', much like Secrets to a War Wizard's Power. The Sword of Truth, representative of its namesake, was key to life. The secret to Richard's power is that he seeks the truth. In seeking truth he turns a blind eye to corrupt ideas and embraces that which is the essence of life itself. The Sisters of the Dark assumed the truth to be what they had always been told by others and never thought to verify it themselves. The price they paid for such an oversight was their lives. Moreover, the sisters would never have been able to access the power of life even with the sword because they were acting through hate. Richard, on the other hand intended to use the power to help those he cared about and thus had the ability to harness the power of life. "Those who have come here to hate should leave now, for in their hatred they only betray themselves" - translated from The Book of Life. That book too was empty to the sisters because of the path they followed.
One must always seek the truth in life for themselves, rather than simply believing that which they are told without their own rational understanding and justification for that belief. Failure to do so can lead to a life of clinging to empty promises and following trails of false hope. The knowledge gained through seeking the truth, if used for the purposes of good, is the key to enjoying life to its fullest. Those who use the truth for hate however, only betray themselves.
So, in a general sense, all of the Wizard's Rules, are not only known by wizards, but truths that every man who accepts the truth can hold as self-evident in his heart.
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