Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity.
Frank HerbertThe function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it.
Frank HerbertMost civilisation is based on cowardice. It's so easy to civilize by teaching cowardice. You water down the standards which would lead to bravery. You restrain the will. You regulate the appetites. You fence in the horizons. You make a law for every movement. You deny the existence of chaos. You teach even the children to breathe slowly. You tame.
Frank HerbertWhat 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.
Frank HerbertThe 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.
Frank Herbert