Frank Herbert Quotes

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“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”

“Guilt starts as a feeling of failure.”

“Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place.”

“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities.”

“One learns from books and example only that certain things can be done. Actual learning requires that you do those things.”

“When a wise man does not understand, he says: "I do not understand." The fool and the uncultured are ashamed of their ignorance. They remain silent when a question could bring them wisdom.”

“A killer with the manners of a rabbit - this is the most dangerous kind.”

“To know a thing well, know it's limits; Only when pushed beyond it's tolerance will it's true nature be seen.
-The Amtal Rule”

“How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him.”

“We faced it and did not resist. The storm passed through us and around us. It's gone, but we remain.”

“Here lies a toppled god.
His fall was not a small one.
We did but build his pedestal,
A narrow and a tall one.”

“But it's well known that repression makes a religion flourish.”

“Face your fears or they will climb over your back.”

“Bless the Maker and His water.
Bless the coming and going of Him.
May His passage cleanse the world.
May He keep the world for His people.”

“Any man who retreats into a cave which has only one opening deserves to die.”

“You know it's love when you want to give joy and damn the consequences.”

“You see, gentlemen, they have something to die for. They've discovered they're a people. They're awakening.”

“A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.”

“This wise man observed that wealth is a tool of freedom. But the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery.”

“Law is the ultimate science.”

“There's hope left in these dusty chords. There's a song left in our rusty hearts. We are torn and frayed but love remains.”

“Knowing where the trap is—that's the first step in evading it.”

“The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future.”

“If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.”

“Most deadly errors arise from obsolete assumptions.”

“Then, as his planet killed him, it occurred to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error.”

“Mankind has only one science… its the science of discontent.”

“When I need to identify rebels, I look for men with principles”

“Emotions are the curse of logic.”

“What senses do we lack that we cannot see or hear another world all around us?”

“Most men go through life unchallenged, except at the final moment.”

“And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning 'That path leads ever down into stagnation.”

“For now is my grief heavier than the sands of the seas, she thought. This world has emptied me of all but the oldest purpose: tomorrow's life.”

“Religion must remain an outlet for people who say to themselves, 'I am not the kind of person I want to be.' It must never sink into an assemblage of the self-satisfied.”

“I am like a person whose hands were kept numb, without sensation from the first moment of awareness - until one day the ability to feel is forced into them. And I say "Look! I have no hands!" But the people all around me say: "What are hands?”

“To endure oneself may be the hardest task in the universe.”

“To be a god can ultimately become boring and degrading. There'd be reason enough for the invention of free will! A god might wish to escape into sleep and be alive only in the unconscious projections of his dream-creatures.”

“They are not mad. They're trained to believe, not to know. Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.”

“Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.”

“Police are inevitably corrupted…. Police always observe that criminals prosper. It takes a pretty dull policeman to miss the fact that the position of authority is the most prosperous criminal position available.”

“Think on it, Chani: the princess will have the name, yet she'll live as less than a concubine - never to know a moment of tenderness from the man to whom she's bound. While we, Chani, we who carry the name of concubine - history will call us wives.”

“If you rely only on your eyes, your other senses weaken.”

“When you imagine mistakes, there can be no self-defense.”

“If you focus your awareness only upon your own rightness, then you invite the forces of opposition to overwhelm you.”

“You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgement of your existence.”

“A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel.”

“A stone is heavy and the sand is weighty; but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both.”

“We have eternity, beloved."
"You may have eternity. I have only now."
"But this is eternity.”

“I should like friendship with you… and trust. I should like that respect for each other which grows in the breast without demand for the huddlings of sex.”