Quotes From "Dune" By Frank Herbert

There is no escape–we pay for the violence of our ancestors. Frank Herbert

My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. 'Something cannot emerge from nothing, ' he said. This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable 'the truth' can be. Frank Herbert

When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong - faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it's too late. Frank Herbert

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 gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. Frank Herbert

Move slowly and the day of your revenge will come, " Tuek said. "Speed is a device of Shaitan. Cool your sorrow—we’ve the diversions for it; three things there are that ease the heart—water, green grass, and the beauty of woman. Frank Herbert

Give as few orders as possible, " his father had told him once long ago. "Once you've given orders on a subject, you must always give orders on that subject. Frank Herbert

Any man who retreats into a cave which has only one opening deserves to die. Frank Herbert

I must rule with eye and claw – as the hawk among lesser birds. - Duke Leto Atreides Frank Herbert

Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part on the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. Frank Herbert

Delay is as dangerous as the wrong answer. Frank Herbert

It doesn't follow that the riots mean permanent hostility toward him. Frank Herbert

My son will wear the title well, the Duke thought, and realized with a sudden chill that this was another death thought. Frank Herbert

He uses the nice old words so rich in tradition to be sure I know he means it. Frank Herbert

There are proven ways to win the loyalty of tough, strong, ferocious men: play on the certain knowledge of their superiority, the mystique of secret covenant, the esprit of shared suffering. Frank Herbert

Three quick breaths triggered the responses: he fell into the floating awareness.. focusing the consciousness.. aortal dilation.. avoiding the unfocused mechanism of consciousness.. to be conscious by choice.. blood enriched and swift-flooding the overload regions.. one does not obtain food-safety freedom by instinct alone.. animal consciousness does not extend beyond the given moment nor into the idea that its victims may become extinct.. the animal destroys and does not produce.. animal pleasures remain close to sensation levels and avoid the perceptual.. the human requires a background grid through which to see his universe.. focused consciousness by choice, this forms your grid.. bodily integrity follows nerve-blood flow according to the deepest awareness of cell needs.. all things/cells/beings are impermanent.. strive for flow-permanence within.. Frank Herbert

On Caladan, we ruled with sea and air power, " the Duke said. "Here, we must scrabble for desert power. This is your inheritance, Paul. Frank Herbert

One must always keep the tools of statecraft sharp and ready. Power and fear — sharp and ready. Frank Herbert

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. Frank Herbert

A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel.. he must lay the best coffee hearth to attract the finest men.. a good ruler has to learn his world's language.. it's different for every world.. the language of the rocks and growing things.. the language you don't hear just with your ears.. the Mystery of Life.. not a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.. Understanding must move with the flow of the process. Frank Herbert

A single obscure decision of prophecy, perhaps the choice of one word over another, could change the entire aspect of the future. He tells us "The vision of time is broad, but when you pass through it, time becomes a narrow door. Frank Herbert

To accept a little death is worse than death itself. Frank Herbert

He felt the inability to grieve as a terrible flaw. Frank Herbert

When a Truthsayer's gifted by the drug, she can look many places in her memory - in her body's memory. We look down so many avenues of the past.. but only feminine avenues.. Yet there's a place no Truthsayer can see. We are repelled by it, terrorized. It is said a man will come one day and find in the gift of the drug his inward eye. He will look where we cannot - into both feminine and masculine pasts.. Many men have tried the drug.. so many, but none has succeeded."" They tried and failed, all of them?"" They tried and died. Frank Herbert

Humans are almost always lonely. Frank Herbert

Growth is limited by the necessity which is present in the least amount. And naturally, the least favorable condition controls the growth rate Frank Herbert

Paul looked down at the hand that had known pain, and then up to the Reverend Mother. The sound of her voice contained a difference than from any other voicing his experience. The words were outlined in brilliance. There was an edge to them. Frank Herbert

The Fremen were supreme in that quality the ancients called "spannungsbogen" -- which is the self-imposed delay between desire for a thing and the act of reaching out to grasp that thing. Frank Herbert

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 nostrils see. Frank Herbert

He who controls the spice controls the universe. Frank Herbert

I am a leg of the death tripod that will destroy our foes. Frank Herbert

They compose poems to their knives. Frank Herbert

How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him. Frank Herbert

The test of a man isn’t what you think he’ll do. It’s what he actually does. Frank Herbert

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 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. Frank Herbert

He's taking the change well?" She asked. Except for getting a bit overtired. He's excited, but what 15-year-old wouldn't be under these circumstances? Frank Herbert

Life produces a different taste each time you take it. Frank Herbert

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 learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Frank Herbert

He realized suddenly that it was one thing to see the past occupying the present, but the true test of prescience was to see the past in the future. Things persisted in not being what they seemed. Frank Herbert