Quotes

Have you ever read a book with really good quotes? Most good books have a few good one-liners. I aim for my novels to have a few good one-liners. The Dune series is not one of those books with a few good one-liners. It has a lot of them. For those who haven’t read Dune, I highly recommend it. I admit, it’s a bit of a slow burn, little bit of a doozy to get through in some parts, but it’s a great story, and the philosophy and parallels to our world make it amazing and thought-provoking. Frank Herbert was low-key a super smart dude. I’ve read the first three books, which really completes the main story arc. I might pick up the rest of them eventually (there are 6 in total).

Here are some of my favorites from the first three books (Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune) split into three categories - government, life, and society.

Concerning Government

“A world is supported by four things: the learning of the wise, the justice of the 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” (Herbert 38, Dune).

“A leader, you see, is one of the things that distinguishes a mob from a people. He maintains the level of individuals. Too few individuals, and a people reverts to a mob” (Herbert 371, Dune).

“Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual” (Herbert 57, Dune Messiah).

“People always expect the worst of the rich and powerful. It is said one can always tell an aristocrat: he reveals only those of his vices which will make him popular” (Herbert 108, Dune Messiah).

“Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it. Eventually, they lose touch with reality… and fall” (Herbert 109, Dune Messiah).

“What religion and self-interest cannot hide, governments can” (Herbert 110, Dune Messiah).

“Rulers are notoriously cynical where religions are concerned. Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government?” (Herbert 110, Dune Messiah).

“What’s law? Control? Law filters chaos and what drips through? Serenity? Law — our highest ideal and our basest nature. Don’t look too closely at the law. Do, and you’ll find the rationalized interpretations, the legal casuistry, the precedents of convenience. You’ll find the serenity, which is just another word for death” (Herbert 210, Dune Messiah).

“Government cannot be religious and self-assertive at the same time. Religious experience needs spontaneity which laws inevitably suppress” (Herbert 213, Dune Messiah).

“There exists a limit to the force even the most powerful may apply without destroying themselves. Judging this limit is the true artistry of government. Misuse of power is the fatal sin. The law cannot be a tool of vengeance, never a hostage, nor a fortification against the martyrs it has created. You cannot threaten any individual and escape the consequences” (Herbert 246, Dune Messiah).

“A large populace held in check by a small but powerful force is quite a common situation in our universe. And we know the major conditions wherein this large populace may turn upon its keepers — One: when they find a leader. This is the most volatile threat to the powerful; they must retain control of leaders. Two: When the populace recognizes its chains. Keep the populace blind and unquestioning. Three: When the populace perceives a hope of escape from bondage. They must never even believe that escape is possible!” (Herbert 124, Children of Dune).

“For proper government, the tribe must have ways to choose men whose lives reflect the way a government should behave” (Herbert 131, Children of Dune).

“Good government never depends upon laws, but upon the personality 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” (Herbert 171, Children of Dune).

“Governments, 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” (Herbert 221, Children of Dune).

“I tell you to learn that a government’s growth and its death are apparent in the growth and death of its citizens” (Herbert 260, Children of Dune).

“People, not commercial organizations or chains of command, are what make great civilizations work. Every civilization depends upon 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 collapses” (Herbert 357, Children of Dune).

“‘But the evil was known after the event!’ ‘Which is the way of many great evils,’ Leto said” (Herbert 406, Children of Dune).

“Any path which narrows future possibilities may become a lethal trap. Humans are not threading their way through a maze; they scan a vast horizon filled with unique opportunities. The narrowing viewpoint of the maze should appeal only to creatures with their noses buried in the sand” (Herbert 420, Children of Dune).

“Church and State, scientific reason and faith, the individual and his community, even progress and tradition… There exist no intransigent opposites except in the beliefs of men. Anyone can rip aside the veil of Time. You can discover the future in the past or in your own imagination. Doing this, you win back your consciousness in your inner being. You know then that the universe is a coherent whole and you are indivisible from it” (Herbert 440, Children of Dune).

“The assumption that a whole system can be made to work better through an assault on its conscious elements betrays a dangerous ignorance. This has often been the ignorant approach of those who call themselves scientists and technologists” (Herbert 462, Children of Dune).

“… all humans are prone to error and all leaders are human” (Herbert 470, Children of Dune).

“‘There’s always a prevailing mystique in any civilization,’ Leto said. ‘It builds itself as a barrier against change, and that always leaves future generations unprepared for the universe’s treachery. All mystiques are the same in building these barriers — the religious mystique, the hero-leader mystique, the messiah mystique, the mystique of science/technology, and the mystique of nature itself. We live in an Imperium which such a mystique has shaped, and now that Imperium is falling apart because most people don’t distinguish between mystique and their universe. You see, the mystique is like demon possession; it tends to take over the consciousness, becoming all things to the observer” (Herbert 473, Children of Dune).

“You see, whatever system animals choose to survive by must be based on the pattern of interlocking communities, interdependence, working together in the common design which is the system. And this system will produce the most knowledgeable rulers ever seen” (Herbert 475, Children of Dune).

Concerning Life

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain” (Herbert 10, Dune).

“The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience… A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it” (Herbert 40, Dune).

“Think you of the fact that a deaf person cannot hear. Then, what deafness may we not all possess? What senses do we lack that we cannot see and cannot hear another world all around us?” (Herbert 51, Dune).

“Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test that it’s a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain” (Herbert 89, Dune)

“The 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” (Herbert 333, Dune).

“Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic” (Herbert 471, Dune).

“To compete is to prepare for failure. Do not be trapped by the need to achieve anything. This way, you achieve everything” (Herbert 252, Dune Messiah).

“Knowledge never makes for simple decisions” (Herbert 15, Children of Dune).

“The joy of living, its beauty is all bound up in the fact that life can surprise you” (Herbert 83, Children of Dune).

“Every human [is] a series of relationships” (Herbert 144, Children of Dune).

“I can think of nothing more poisonous than to rot in the stink of your own reflections” (Herbert 181, Children of Dune).

“The universe never threatens nor promises. It holds things beyond our sway. These are the realities of this universe and they must be faced regardless of how you feel about them. You cannot fend off such realities with words. They will come at you in their own wordless way and then, you will understand what is meant by “life and death.” Understanding this, you will be filled with joy” (Herbert 208, Children of Dune).

“Abandon certainty! That’s life’s deepest command. That’s what life’s all about. We’re a probe into the unknown, into the uncertainty… If certainty is knowing absolutely an absolute future, then that’s only death disguised! Such a future becomes now!” (Herbert 264, Children of Dune).

“You aren’t really thinking or really existing unless you’re willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgement of your existence” (Herbert 264, Children of Dune).

“The one-eyed view of our universe says you must not look far afield for problems. Such problems may never arrive. Instead, tend to the wolf within your fences. The packs ranging outside may not even exist” (Herbert 266, Children of Dune).

“Knowing [is] a barrier which prevent[s] learning” (Herbert 275, Children of Dune).

“The future remains uncertain and so it should, for it is the canvas upon which we pain our desires. Thus always the human condition faces a beautifully empty canvas. We posses only this moment in which to dedicate ourselves continuously to the sacred presence which we share and create” (Herbert 355, Children of Dune).

Concerning Society

“Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them” (Herbert 14, Dune).

“The proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence. On that path lies danger” (Herbert 92, Dune).

“The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man” (Herbert 161, Dune).

“…But it’s a human trait that when we encounter personal problems, those things most deeply personal are the most difficult to bring out for our logic to scan. We tend to flounder around, blaming everything but the actual, deep-seated thing that’s really chewing on us” (Herbert 195, Dune).

“What do you despise? By this are you truly known” (Herbert 292, Dune).

“No matter how exotic human civilization becomes, no matter the developments of life and society nor the complexity of the machine/human interface, there always come interludes of lonely power when the course of humankind, the very future of humankind, depends upon the relatively simple actions of single individuals” (Herbert 176, Dune Messiah).

“The most dangerous of all creations is a rigid code of ethics” (Herbert 122, Children of Dune).

“Short-term expediency always fails in the long term” (Herbert 126, Children of Dune).

“Traditions were surely the most controlling element in a secure society” (Herbert 139, Children of Dune).

“Our civilization could well die of indifference within it before succumbing to external attack” (Herbert 172, Children of Dune).

“If you focus your awareness only upon your own rightness, then you invite the forces of opposition to overwhelm you. This is a common error” (Herbert 202, Children of Dune).

“Knowledge, you see, has no uses without purpose, but purpose is what builds enclosing walls” (Herbert 282, Children of Dune).

“In doing good, avoid notoriety; in doing evil, avoid self-awareness” (Herbert 301, Children of Dune).

“To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty” (Herbert 314, Children of Dune).

“Limits of survival are set by climate, those long drifts of change which a generation may fail to notice. And it is the extremes of climate which set the pattern. Lonely, finite humans may observe climatic provinces, fluctuations of annual weather, and occasionally may observe such things as “This is a colder year than I’ve ever known.” Such things are sensible. But humans are seldom alerted to the shifting average through a great span of years. And it is precisely in this alerting that humans learn how to survive on any planet. They must learn climate” (Herbert 391, Children of Dune).