Chainfire - Wizard's Ninth Rule

Wizard's Ninth Rule

The Wizard's Ninth Rule, revealed in Chainfire, is:

A contradiction cannot exist in reality. Not in part, nor in whole. —Chapter 48, p. 489, U.S. hardcover edition

It is explained in the novel as follows: "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."

Read more about this topic:  Chainfire

Famous quotes containing the words wizard, ninth and/or rule:

    The fabulous Wizard of Oz
    Retired from his racket because,
    What with up-to-date science,
    To most of his clients
    He wasn’t the Wizard he was.
    Anonymous.

    So in majestic cadence rise and fall
    The mighty undulations of thy song,
    O sightless bard, England’s Monides!
    And ever and anon, high over all
    Uplifted, a ninth wave superb and strong,
    Floods all the soul with its melodious seas.
    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)

    Man who man would be,
    Must rule the empire of himself; in it
    Must be supreme, establishing his throne
    On vanquished will, quelling the anarchy
    Of hopes and fears, being himself alone.
    Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)