The flesh surrenders itself. Eternity takes back its own. Our bodies stirred these waters briefly, danced with a certain intoxication before the love of life and self, dealt with a few strange ideas, then submitted to the instruments of Time. What can we say of this? I occurred. I am not...yet, I occurred.
Frank HerbertA man is a fool not to put everything he has, at any given moment, into what he is creating.
Frank HerbertA beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.
Frank HerbertMost believe that a satisfactory future requires a return to an idealized past, a past which never in fact existed.
Frank HerbertIf you believe certain words, you believe their hidden arguments. When you believe something is right or wrong, true or false, you believe the assumptions in the words which express the arguments. Such assumptions are often full of holes, but remain most precious to the convinced.
Frank HerbertSmall souls who seek power over others first destroy the faith those others might have in themselves.
Frank HerbertThere are problems in this universe for which there are no answers. Nothing. Nothing can be done.
Frank HerbertGovernments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class -- whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.
Frank HerbertConfine yourself to observing and you always miss the point of your life. The object can be stated this way: Live the best life you can. Life is a game whose rules you learn if you leap into it and play it to the hilt. Otherwise, you are caught off balance, continually surprised by the shifting play. Non-players often whine and complain that luck always passes them by. They refuse to see that they can create some of their own luck. Darwi Odrade - Chapterhouse: Dune
Frank HerbertThere is in each of us an ancient force that takes and an ancient force that gives. A man finds little difficulty facing that place within himself where the taking force dwells, but it's almost impossible for him to see into the giving force without changing into something other than man. For a woman, the situation is reversed. ... These things are so ancient within us that they're ground into each separate cell of our bodies... It's as easy to be overwhelmed by giving as by taking.
Frank HerbertTime can also be a place.... Everything depends on where you are standing, on where you look or what you hear. The measure of it is found in consciousness itself.
Frank HerbertThe writing of history is largely a process of diversion. Most historical accounts distract attention from the secret influences behind great events.
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 HerbertAtrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity.
Frank HerbertThe concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future.
Frank HerbertThe proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence. On that path lies danger.
Frank HerbertWe never completely escape the teachers of our childhood nor any of the patterns that formed us.
Frank HerbertIn all of my universe I have seen no law of nature, unchanging and inexorable. This universe presents only changing relationships which are sometimes seen as laws by short-lived awareness. These fleshy sensoria which we call self are ephemera withering in the blaze of infinity, fleeting aware of temporary conditions which confine our activities and change as our activities change. If you must label the absolute, use its proper name: Temporary.
Frank HerbertMany have marked the speed with which Muad'Dib learned the necessities of Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit, of course, know the basis of this speed. For the others, we can say that Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson.
Frank HerbertEducation is no substitute for intelligence. That elusive quality is defined only in part by puzzle-solving ability. It is in the creation of new puzzles reflecting what your senses report that you round out the definitions.
Frank HerbertIn 1054, the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope excommunicated each other. That was the end of holiness for both churches.
Frank HerbertIf enough of us believe, a new thing can be made to exist. Belief structure creates a filter through which chaos is sifted into order.
Frank HerbertConstitutions 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.
Frank HerbertTime is a measure of space, just as a range-finder is a measure of space, but measuring locks us into the place we measure.
Frank HerbertA creature who has spent his life creating one particular representation of his selfdom will die rather than become the antithesis of that representation
Frank HerbertHumans live best when each has his place, when each knows where he belongs in the scheme of things. Destroy the place and destroy the person.
Frank HerbertReady comprehension is often a knee-jerk response and the most dangerous form of understanding. It blinks an opaque screen over your ability to learn. The judgmental precedents of law function that way, littering your path with dead ends. Be warned. Understand nothing. All comprehension is temporary.
Frank HerbertGood governance never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.
Frank HerbertA world is supported by four things: the learning of wise, the justice of great, the prayers of the righteous and the valor of the brave. But all of these are as nothing without a ruler who knows the art of ruling.
Frank HerbertTo endure oneself may be the hardest task in the universe. You cannot hire a wise man or any other intellect to solve it for you. There's no writ of inquest or calling of witness to provide answers.
Frank HerbertThe mind can go either direction under stress—toward positive or toward negative: on or off. Think of it as a spectrum whose extremes are unconsciousness at the negative end and hyperconsciousness at the positive end. The way the mind will lean under stress is strongly influenced by training.
Frank HerbertThe convoluted wording of legalisms grew up around the necessity to hide from ourselves the violence we intend toward each other. Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. You have done violence to him, consumed his energy.
Frank Herbert