Frank Herbert citations

Page 4

“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.”

“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”

“The vision of time is broad, but when you pass through it, time becomes a narrow door.”

“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.”

“Caution is the path to mediocrity. Gliding, passionless mediocrity is all that most people think they can achieve.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”