Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he...
You must teach me the way you thrust your worries aside and turn to practical matters.
Create or arouse such unbridled forces and you built carnal fantasies of enormous complexity. You could lead whole populations around by their desires, by their fantasy projections.
We will not run, Paul said. We'll move with dignity. We'll do what must be done.
My son will wear the title well, the Duke thought, and realized with a sudden chill that this was another death thought.
I realize that humans cannot bear very much reality. Most lives are a flight from selfhood. Most prefer the truths of the stable. You stick your heads into the stanchions and munch contentedly until y...
Every civilization depends on the quality of the individuals it produces. If you over-organize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatness-- they cannot work and their civilization co...
He who controls the spice controls the universe.
All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.
He 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 l...
The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.
My son displays a general garment and you claim it’s cut to your fit? Jessica asked. What a fascinating revelation.
Mood’s a thing for cattle or for making love. You fight when the necessity arises, no matter your mood.
Black is a blind remembering, she thought. You listen for pack sounds, for the cries of those who hunted your ancestors in a past so ancient only your most primitive cells remember. The ears see. The...
You, Priest in your mufti, you are a chaplain to the self-satisfied. I come not to challenge Muad'Dib but to challenge you! Is your religion real when it costs you nothing and carries no risk? Is your...
There was a man so wise,He jumped intoA sandy placeAnd burnt out both his eyes!And when he knew his eyes were gone,He offered no complaint.He summoned up a visionAnd made himself a saint. -Children's...
Governments always commit their entire populations when the demands grow heavy enough. By their passive acceptance, these populations become accessories to whatever is done in their name.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Whether a thought is spoken or not, it is a real thing and has powers of reality.
The only past which endures lies wordlessly within you.