Frank Herbert citations

Page 3

“Les peuples vaincus essaient toujours de compenser par des mythes et des légendes.”

“Le changement est la seule loi universelle.”

“Notre interprétation personnelle intervient toujours. Ce que nous disons que nous faisons est inévitablement modifié par notre propre compréhension et les limites de notre compréhension.”

“Le véritable bonheur, c'était cela. La possibilité de s'arrêter, ne serait-ce que pour un moment.”

“Là où il n'y a pas intelligence, il ne saurait y avoir stupidité.”

“L'usage du pouvoir exige une certaine mesure d'inhumanité.”

“La pitié est un sentiment inutile.”

“La couleur d'un poisson ne le rend pas moins poisseux.”

“L'adoration est produite par la peur.”

“Tout dépend du point de vue de l'observateur; à chaque changement de point de vue correspond un changement de lois. Il existe donc une infinité de lois.”

“Un vrai chef envisage plusieurs possibilités avant d'agir.”

“Toutes les monstruosités ont leurs euphémismes.”

“L'efficacité, c'est le contraire de l'habileté.”

“On ne peut pas raisonner avec un fou.”

“L’Église a suffisamment péché en se réclamant de Dieu pour bénir le meurtre.”

“Sur les milliards de créatures vivantes qui peuplent la terre, seul l'homme réfléchit à son existence. Ses questions aboutissent à le torturer; car il est incapable d'accepter, contrairement aux insectes, que l'unique but de la vie est la vie même.”

“Importe-t-il à la fourmi de savoir à qui appartient le pied qui l'écrase?”

“La plus puissante force de sociabilisation dans l'univers est la dépendance mutuelle.”

“Quand vous bravez la mort, en quoi est-ce différent d'un suicide délibéré?”

“Nous avons différentes façons d'esquiver la réalité. Si on nous obligeait à l'affronter à chaque instant de la journée, nous deviendrions tous fous.”

“La prohibition renforce toujours ce qu'elle interdit.”

“Je ne connaîtrai pas la peur car la peur tue l'esprit. La peur est la petite mort qui conduit à l'oblitération totale. J'affronterai ma peur. Je lui permettrai de passer sur moi, au travers de moi. Et lorsqu'elle sera passée, je tournerai mon œil intérieur sur son chemin. Et là où elle sera passée, il n'y aura plus rien. Rien que moi.”

“If you need something to worship, then worship life - all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!”

“Give as few orders as possible," his father had told him once long ago. "Once you've given orders on a subject, you must always give orders on that subject.”

“The truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to express it.”

“What do such machines really do? They increase the number of things we can do without thinking. Things we do without thinking-there’s the real danger.”

“The surest way to keep a secret is to make someone think they already know the answer.”

“Never attempt to reason with people who know they are right!”

“What does a mirror look at?”

“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.”

“There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man - with human flesh.”