Frank Herbert: Trending quotes

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Frank Herbert: 316 quotes46 likes

“Equal justice and equal opportunity are ideals we should seek, but we should recognize that humans administer the ideals and that humans do not have equal ability.”

Frank Herbert

Dune Genesis (1980)
Context: In the beginning I was just as ready as anyone to fall into step, to seek out the guilty and to punish the sinners, even to become a leader. Nothing, I felt, would give me more gratification than riding the steed of yellow journalism into crusade, doing the book that would right the old wrongs.
Reevaluation raised haunting questions. I now believe that evolution, or deevolution, never ends short of death, that no society has ever achieved an absolute pinnacle, that all humans are not created equal. In fact, I believe attempts to create some abstract equalization create a morass of injustices that rebound on the equalizers. Equal justice and equal opportunity are ideals we should seek, but we should recognize that humans administer the ideals and that humans do not have equal ability.

“There is only one true wealth in all the universe--living time.”

Frank Herbert book The Green Brain

The Green Brain (1966)
Context: There is only one true wealth in all the universe. I have given you some of it. I have given your father and your mate some of it. And your friends. This wealth is living time. Time.
Context: "A slave is one who must produce wealth for another," the Brain said. "There is only one true wealth in all the universe. I have given you some of it. I have given your father and your mate some of it. And your friends. This wealth is living time. Time. Are we slaves because we have given you more time to live?"

“Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect any who seek it.”

Frank Herbert book Chapterhouse: Dune

Source: Chapterhouse: Dune

“The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth.”

Frank Herbert book Children of Dune

Source: Children of Dune

“Survival is the ability to swim in strange water.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

“The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action in mind.”

Frank Herbert

"The Plowboy Interview: Frank Herbert", in Mother Earth News No. 69 (May/June 1981)
General sources

“It is impossible to live in the past, difficult to live in the present and a waste to live in the future.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Variant: It is difficult to live in the present, pointless to live in the future and impossible to live in the past.
Source: Dune

“The people who can destroy a thing, they control it.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

“Fear is the mind-killer.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune