Quotes from Frank Herbert

How could you win the loyalty of such men?" "There are proven ways: play on the certain knowledge of their superiority, the mystique of secret covenant, the esprit of shared suffering. It can be done. It has been done on many worlds in many times.

Past civilizations without number have foundered on the rocks of equal justice. Such foolishness destroys the natural hierarchies which are far more important. Any individual takes on significance only in his relationship to your total society.

Often I must speak otherwise than I think," he said. "This is called diplomacy.

The birds were a blurred patch on silver-blue sky—distant flecks of soot floating above him.

Unrestricted questing after knowledge has a long history of producing unwanted competition. The powerful want a "safe line of investigations," which will develop only those products and ideas that can be controlled and, most important, that will allow the larger part of the benefits to be captured by inside investors.

CRYSKNIFE: the sacred knife of the Fremen on Arrakis. It is manufactured in two forms from teeth taken from dead sandworms. The two forms are "fixed" and "unfixed." An unfixed knife requires proximity to a human body's electrical field to prevent disintegration. Fixed knives are treated for storage.

A leader, you see, is one of the things that distinguishes a mob from a people. He maintains the level of individuals. Too few individuals

I think she got mad. She said the mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience. So I quoted the First Law of Mentat at her: 'A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.' That seemed to satisfy her.

Do you wrestle with dreams? Do you contend with shadows? Do you move in a kind of sleep? Time has slipped away. Your life is stolen. You tarried with trifles, Victim of your folly. —DIRGE FOR JAMIS ON THE FUNERAL PLAIN, FROM "SONGS OF MUAD'DIB" BY THE PRINCESS IRULAN

What's your definition of sanity, Skipper?' 'The ability to swim,' said Sparrow. Ramsey felt a cold shock, as though he had been immersed suddenly in freezing water. He had to force himself to continue breathing normally. As though from a great distance, he heard Sparrow's voice: 'That means the sane person has to understand currents, has to know what's required in different waters.' Ramsey

Usul, you're crying," Chani murmured. "Usul, my strength

Conozco un esquema profundo que los humanos niegan con la palabra aunque lo afirmen con sus acciones. Dicen que buscan la seguridad y la tranquilidad, condiciones a las que dan el nombre de paz. Incluso mientras hablan, crean semillas de agitación y violencia.

He shook his head, thinking of the Bene Gesserit designs behind those genetic markers in Teg's face — that hawk look, the crease lines and that inner thing, that certainty of moral superiority. How moral and how superior?

Leave absolute knowledge of the future to those moments of déjà vu which any human may experience. I know the trap of prescience. My father's life tells me what I need to know about it. No, grandmother: to know the future absolutely is to be trapped into that future absolutely. It collapses time. Present becomes future. I require more freedom than that.

They were cheap masks locked on festering thoughts—voices gabbling to drown out the loud silence in every breast.

Here, they showed us the Walden Fallacy in ultimate foolishness, explaining: Given any species which reproduces by genetic mingling such that every individual is a unique specimen, all attempts to impose a decision matrix based on assumed uniform behavior will prove lethal. — The Dosadi Papers, BuSab reference

un precipicio se descubre siempre demasiado tarde».

that it is difficult to live in the present, pointless to live in the future and impossible to live in the past.

growth itself can produce unfavorable conditions unless treated with extreme care.

Unii nu particip? niciodat? la nimic. ViaÈ›a li se întâmpl? pur È™i simplu. Se menÈ›in printr-o st?ruin?? mai mult sau mai puÈ›in tâmp? È™i rezist? cu furie sau violen?? la orice i-ar putea smulge din înverÈ™unatele lor iluzii de securitate

As with all things sacred, it gives with one hand and takes with the other.

Every religious, business and governmental question has the single derivative: 'Who will exercise the power?' Alliances, combines, complexes, they all chase mirages unless they go for the power. All else is nonsense, as most thinking beings come to realize.

They have no room to maneuver because that's the way their superiors grow fat. If you don't see the difference between regulation and law, both have the force of law.

a precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it's too late.