Frank Herbert Quotes

I have been a stranger in a strange land, Halleck quoted. Paul stared at him, recognizing the quotation from the O.C. Bible, wondering: Does Gurney, too, wish an end to devious plots?

If you focus your awareness only upon your own rightness, then you invite the forces of opposition to overwhelm you.

If you put away those who report accurately, you’ll keep only those who know what you want to hear. I can think of nothing more poisonous than to rot in the stink of your own reflections.

Ignorance has its advantages. A universe of surprises is what I pray for!

In all of my universe I have seen no law of nature, unchanging and inexorable. This universe presents only changing relationships which are somtimes seen as laws by short-lived awareness. These fleshy...

In the perfect society, there is neither emotion nor mercy; precious space cannot be wasted on those who have outlived their usefulness.

Is consciousness merely a special form of hallucination?

Is your religion real when it costs you nothing and carries no risk? Is your religion real when you fatten upon it? Is your religion real when you commit atrocities in its name?

It is another kind of marriage—the marriage of privilege and duty. It is the aristocrat’s explanation and his excuse.

It was a BuSab axiom that all power blocs tended toward aristocratic forms, that the descendants of decision makers dominated the power niches.

It was mostly sweet, he whispered, and you were the sweetest of all.

Kad se pretjerano koristi, čak se i odanost na kraju istroši.

Knowing was a barrier which prevented learning.

Law always chooses sides on the basis of enforcement power. Morality and legal niceties have little to do with it when the real question is: Who has the clout?   —Bene

More fool he to let himself become an addict to anything, even to living.

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's shocking to find how many people do not believe they...

My lungs taste the air of Time,Blown past falling sands…

Once more the drama begins.' — The Emperor Paul Muad'dib on his ascension to the Lion Throne.

Only those who recognize the value of war and exercise it have any degree of self-determination.

Paul sat silently in the darkness, a single stark thought dominating his awareness: My mother is my enemy. She does not know it, but she is. She is bringing the jihad. She bore me; she trained me. She...