Quotes from Frank Herbert

People don't vote. Instinct tells them it's useless.

A voice hissed: He sheds tears! It was taken around the ring Usal gives moisture to the dead! He felt fingers touch his damp cheek, heard the awed whispers.

Respect for the truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. Something cannot emerge from nothing.

Since every individual is accountable ultimately to the self, the formation of that self demands our utmost care and attention.

What was it St. Augustine said? The mind commands the body and it obeys. The mind orders itself and meets resistance.

O you who know what we suffer here, do not forget us in your prayers.

There's steel in this man that no one has taken the temper out of...

The day hums sweetly when you have enough bees working for you.

Be prepared to appreciate what you meet.

Some say, Scytale said, that people cling to Imperial leadership because space is infinite. They feel lonely without a unifying symbol. For a lonely people, the Emperor is a definite place. They can turn toward him and say: 'See, there He is. He makes us one.' Perhaps religion serves the same purpose, m'Lord.

A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel... he must lay the best coffee hearth to attract the finest men... a good ruler has to learn his world's language... it's different for every world... the language of the rocks and growing things... the language you don't hear just with your ears... the Mystery of Life... not a problem to solve, but a reality to experience... Understanding must move with the flow of the process.

They say they seek security and quiet, the condition they call peace. Even as they speak they create the seeds of turmoil and violence.

Irreverence is a most necessary ingredient of religion. Not to speak of its importance in philosophy. Irreverence is the only way left to us for testing our universe.

God created Arrakis to train the faithful.

I wrote the Dune series because I had this idea that charismatic leaders ought to come with a warning label on their forehead: May be dangerous to your health. One of the most dangerous presidents we had in this century was John Kennedy because people said Yes Sir Mr. Charismatic Leader what do we do next? and we wound up in Vietnam. And I think probably the most valuable president of this century was Richard Nixon. Because he taught us to distrust government and he did it by example.

Revenge is for children and the emotionally retarded.

The past is no farther away than your pillow.

All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corrupt-able. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.

I never thought it would be easy to serve God, she said. I just didn't think it would be this hard.

When law and duty are one, united by religion, you never become fully conscious, fully aware of yourself. You are always a little less than an individual.

We've lost something vital, I tell you. When we lost it, we lost the ability to make good decisions. We fall upon decisions these days the way we fall upon an enemy—or wait and wait, which is a form of giving up, and we allow the decisions of others to move us. Have we forgotten that we were the ones who set this current flowing?

Military foolishness is ultimately suicidal. They believe that by risking death they pay the price of any violent behavior against enemies of their own choosing. They have the invader mentality, that false sense of freedom from responsibility for your own actions.

Chance is the nature of our universe. […] madness represents a chaotic reservoir of surprises. Some surprises can be valuable.

Fear is the penalty of consciousness forced to stare at itself.