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.

    The ninth day of Christmas,
    My true love sent to me
    Nine drummers drumming,
    —Unknown. The Twelve Days of Christmas (l. 53–55)

    Therefore doth heaven divide
    The state of man in divers functions,
    Setting endeavor in continual motion,
    To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
    Obedience; for so work the honeybees,
    Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
    The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)