The gravest error a thinking person can make is to believe that one particular version of history is absolute fact. History is recorded by a series of observers, none of whom is impartial. The facts are distorted by sheer passage of time and thousands of years of humanity's dark ages, deliberate misrepresentations by religious sects, and the inevitable corruption that comes from an accumulation of careless mistakes. The wise person, then, views history as a set of lessons to be learned, choices and ramifications to be considered and discussed, and mistakes that should never again be made.

The problem of leadership is inevitably: Who will play God?" Muad'Dib

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.

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

Religions often partake of the myth of progress that shields us from the terrors of an uncertain future.

We are generalists. You can't draw neat lines around planet-wide problems. Planetology is a cut-and-fit science.

It must certainly be more dangerous to live in ignorance than to live with knowledge.