Quotes from Frank Herbert

Warfare leaves a residue of 'eat drink and be merry' that often leads inexorably to moral breakdown.

The mind can go either direction under stress—toward positive or toward negative:

He passed off the loss of a spice crawler with a gesture. The threat to men's lives had him in a rage. A leader such as that would command fanatic loyalty. He would be difficult to defeat.

The historical system of mutual pillage and extortion stops here on Arrakis," his father said. "You cannot go on forever stealing what you need without regard to those who come after. The physical qualities of a planet are written into its economic and political record.

Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of history have based their job security.

How the mind gears itself for its environment, she thought. And she recalled a Bene Gesserit axiom: "The mind can go either direction under stress—toward positive or toward negative: on or off. Think of it as a spectrum whose extremes are unconsciousness at the negative end and hyperconsciousness at the positive end. The way the mind will lean under stress is strongly influenced by training.

Gods need take no responsibility for anything except genesis. Gods accept everything and thus accept nothing. Gods must be identifiable yet remain anonymous. Gods do not need a spirit world.

Words can carry any burden we wish. All that's required is agreement and a tradition upon which to build.

All men beneath your position covet your station

The real universe is always one step behind logic.

the proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence.

The person who takes the banal and ordinary and illuminates it in a new way can terrify. We do not want our ideas changed. We feel threatened by such demands. "I already know the important things!"we say. Then Changer comes

Time can also be a place, Moneo, Leto said. Everything depends upon where you are standing, on where you look or what you hear. The measure of it is found in consciousness itself.

Culture! They dispense culture the better to rule. Beauty! They promote the beauty which enslaves. They create a literate ignorance—easiest thing of all. They leave nothing to chance. Chains! Everything they do forges chains, enslaves. But slaves always revolt.

Most humans are not strong enough to find freedom within." Sister

Once . . . long ago, he'd thought of himself as an inventor of government. But the invention had fallen into old patterns. It was like some hideous contrivance with plastic memory. Shape it any way you wanted, but relax for a moment, and it snapped into the ancient forms. Forces at work beyond his reach in human breasts eluded and defied him.

Grief is the price of victory

Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife—chopping off what's incomplete and saying: "Now, it's complete because it's ended here.

Create or arouse such unbridled forces and you built carnal fantasies of enormous complexity. You could lead whole populations around by their desires, by their fantasy projections.

The vision of time is broad, but when you pass through it, time becomes a narrow door.' And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning, 'That path leads ever down into stagnation.

There are some things no one can bear. I meddled in all the possible futures I could create until, finally, they created me.

Axiom: the best place to conserve your water is in your body. It keeps your energy up. You're stronger. Trust your stillsuit." She

Better the complexities one thought he knew than the complexities which defied understanding.

Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it. Eventually they lose touch with reality… and fall.