Frank Herbert Quotes

Failure to make a decision was in itself a decision — he

To endure oneself may be the hardest task in the universe.

There is no measuring Muad'Dib's motives by ordinary standards. In the moment of his triumph, he saw the death prepared for him, yet he accepted the treachery. Can you say he did this out of a sense of justice? Whose justice, then? Remember, we speak now of the Muad'Dib who ordered battle drums made from his enemies' skins, the Muad'Dib who denied the conventions of his ducal past with a wave of the hand, saying merely: 'I am the Kwisatz Haderach. That is reason enough.

Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect any who seek it.

You do not take from this universe, he thought. It grants what it will.

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.

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

Prisons are needed only to provide the illusion that courts and police are effective. They’re a kind of job insurance.

You don't write for success. That takes part of your attention away from the writing. If you're really doing it, that's all you're doing: writing.

Enemies strengthen you. Allies weaken.

Things could not be forever ordered and formulated. He had to find the rhythm of change and see between the changes to the changing itself.

If you ask "Should we be in space?" you ask a nonsense question. We are in space. We will be in space.

How tempting it is to raise high walls and keep out change. Rot here in our own self-satisfied comfort.

All governments needed to remain under suspicion during their time of power including that of the Sisterhood itself. Trust no government! Not even mine!

You can say things which cannot be done. This is elementary. The trick is to keep attention focused on what is said and not on what can be done.