It is so shocking to find out how many people do not believe that they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult.

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.

When I was writing Dune there was no room in my mind for concerns about the book's success or failure. I was concerned only with the writing. Six years of research had preceded the day I sat down to put the story together, and the interweaving of the many plot layers I had planned required a degree of concentration I had never before experienced.

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

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

Constitutions become the ultimate tyranny," Paul said. "They’re organized power on such a scale as to be overwhelming. The constitution is social power mobilized and it has no conscience. It can crush the highest and the lowest, removing all dignity and individuality. It has an unstable balance point and no limitations.

People don't vote. Instinct tells them it's useless.