Quotes from Frank Herbert

The writing of history is largely a diversion. Most historical accounts distract attention from the secret influences behind great events.

I choose to ally myself against any force which brings humiliation upon humankind.

As you well know, the secret of community lies in suppression of the incompatible.

Earth? Golden Age? Stilgar was irritated and puzzled. Why would Paul wish to discuss myths from the dawn of time?

Paul sat silently in the darkness, a single stark thought dominating his awareness: My mother is my enemy. She does not know it, but she is. She is bringing the jihad. She bore me; she trained me. She is my enemy.

It was easy to believe that warning in this place. One word from Leto and these women would tear an offender to pieces. They would not question. They would act. Idaho began to feel a new appreciation of these women as an army. Personal peril would not stop them. They served God!

The old woman said: "You've heard of animals chewing off a leg to escape a trap? There's an animal kind of trick. A human would remain in the trap, endure the pain, feigning death that he might kill the trapper and remove a threat to his kind.

Dune Messiah is the most misunderstood of Frank Herbert's novels. The reasons for this are as fascinating and complex as the renowned author himself. (Brian Herbert's Introduction)

It's shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult.

the mystery of life isn't a problem to solve but a reality to experience. Omens help you remember this. And because you are here, because you have the religion, victory cannot evade you in the end. As

The mind imposes this framework which it calls 'reality'. That arbitrary framework has a tendency to be quite independent of what your senses report.

Every judgment teeters on the brink of error.

You have eyes, yet cannot see without light.

The hearts of all men dwell in the same wilderness.

Power attracts the corruptible. Absolute power attracts the absolutely corruptible. This is the danger of entrenched bureaucracy to its subject population. Even spoils systems are preferable because levels of tolerance are lower and the corrupt can be thrown out periodically. Entrenched bureaucracy seldom can be touched short of violence. Beware when Civil Service and Military join hands!

You should fear me, Mother. I am the Kwisatz Haderach." Jessica

People don't want war!" "They want chaos. War is the most readily available form of chaos.

You shall be known among us as Usul, the base of the pillar. This is your secret name, your troop name. We of Sietch

Leto spoke the truth: Muad'Dib had changed all that. Stilgar felt lost.

There is a fundamental tension between science and freedom - no matter how science is viewed by its practitioners nor how freedom is sensed by those who believe they have it.

How do you call among you the little mouse, the mouse that jumps?" Paul asked, remembering the pop-hop of motion at Tuono Basin. He illustrated with one hand. A chuckle sounded through the troop. "We call that one muad'dib," Stilgar said. Jessica

Shishakli presented two thin, whiplike shafts as Paul approached. The shafts were about a meter and a half long with glistening plasteel hoods at one end, roughened at the other end for a firm grip. Paul accepted them both in his left hand as required by the ritual. "They are my own hooks," Shishakli said in a husky voice. "They never have failed.

Too few individuals, and a people reverts to a mob.

They compose poems to their knives.