Quotes from Frank Herbert

Abandon certainty! That's life's deepest command. That's what life's all about. We're a probe into the unknown, into the uncertain. Why can't you hear Muad'Dib? If certainty is knowing absolutely an absolute future, then that's only death disguised! Such a future becomes now!

I don't speak, I operate a machine called language. It creaks and groans, but is mine own.

Behold, as a wild ass in the desert, go I forth to my work.

Prophets have a way of dying by violence.

No matter how much we ask after the truth, self-awareness is often unpleasant. We do not feel kindly toward the Truthsayer.

History is a constant race between invention and catastrophe. Education helps but it's never enough. You also must run.

There was a man so wise, He jumped into A sandy place And burnt out both his eyes! And when he knew his eyes were gone, He offered no complaint. He summoned up a vision And made himself a saint. -Children's Verse from History of Muad'dib

His voice was low, charged with unspeakable adjectives.

Knowing was a barrier which prevented learning.

How easy it was to mistake clear reasoning for correct reasoning!

Small souls who seek power over others first destroy the faith those others might have in themselves.

Never obliterate a man unthinkingly, the way an entire fief might do it through some due process of law . Always do it for an overriding purpose—and know your purpose !

It has occurred to me more than once that holy boredom is good and sufficient reason for the invention of free will.

My Uncle Malky always said the Lord Leto never responded to prayer. He said the Lord Leto looked on prayer as attempted coercion, a form of violence against the chosen god, telling the immortal what to do: Give me a miracle, God, or I won't believe in you!

Use the first moments in study. You may miss many an opportunity for quick victory this way, but the moments of study are insurance of success. Take your time and be sure.

What is the son but an extension of the father?

Monarchies have some good features beyond their star qualities. They can reduce the size and parasitic nature of the management bureaucracy. They can make speedy decisions when necessary. They fit an ancient human demand for a parental (tribal/feudal) hierarchy where every person knows his place. It is valuable to know your place, even if that place is temporary. It is galling to be held in place against your will. This is why I teach about tyranny in the best possible way—by example.

You cannot avoid the interplay of politics within an orthodox religion. The power struggle permeates the training, education and disciplining of the orthodox community. Because of this pressure, the leaders of such a community inevitably much face that ultimate internal question: to succumb to complete opportunism as the price of maintaining their rule, or risk sacrificing themselves for the sake of the orthodox ethic.

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, and a people reverts to a mob.

The singular multiplicity of this universe draws my deepest attention. It is a thing of ultimate beauty. Leto II

The meeting between ignorance and knowledge, between brutality and culture - it begins in the dignity with which we treat the dead

We tend to become like the worst in those we oppose.

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.

I didn't want to be different. I wanted to be able to laugh But I'm sister to an Emperor who's worshiped as a god. People fear me. I never wanted to be feared. I don't want to be part of history, I just want to be loved . . . and to love.