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I Don’t Think It’s Quite That Simple. Some People Never Observe Anything, Life Just Happens To Them. They Get By On Little More Than A Kind Of Dumb Persistence, And They Resist With Anger And Resentment Anything That Might Lift Them Out Of That False Serenity.

-Frank Herbert

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I Don’t Think It’s

Frank Herbert

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I Don’t Think It’s Quite That Simple. Some People Never Observe Anything, Life Just Happens To Them. They Get By On Little More Than A Kind Of Dumb Persistence, And They Resist With Anger And Resentment Anything That Might Lift Them Out Of That False Serenity.

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I Don’t Think It’s Quite That Simple. Some People Never Observe Anything, Life Just Happens To Them. They Get By On Little More Than A Kind Of Dumb Persistence, And They Resist With Anger And Resentment Anything That Might Lift Them Out Of That False Serenity.

Then, As His Planet Killed Him, It Occurred To Kynes That His Father And All The Other Scientists Were Wrong, That The Most Persistent Principles Of The Universe Were Accident And Error.

Any Road Followed Precisely To Its End Leads Precisely Nowhere.

It Is So Shocking To Find Out How Many People Do Not Believe That They Can Learn, And How Many More Believe Learning To Be Difficult.

The Young Reed Dies So Easily. Beginnings Are Times Of Great Peril.

A Process Cannot Be Understood By Stopping It. Understanding Must Move With The Flow Of The Process, Must Join It And Flow With It.

If You Ask "should We Be In Space?" You Ask A Nonsense Question. We Are In Space. We Will Be In Space.

The Willow Submits To The Wind And Prospers Until One Day It Is Many Willows - A Wall Against The Wind.

The Clear And Safe Path Leads Evermore Into Stagnation

“you May Have Eternity. I Have Only Now.” “but This Is Eternity.”

In All Of My Universe I Have Seen No Law Of Nature, Unchanging And Inexorable. This Universe Presents Only Changing Relationships Which Are Sometimes Seen As Laws By Short-lived Awareness. These Fleshy Sensoria Which We Call Self Are Ephemera Withering In The Blaze Of Infinity, Fleeting Aware Of Temporary Conditions Which Confine Our Activities And Change As Our Activities Change. If You Must Label The Absolute, Use Its Proper Name: Temporary.

Every Civilization Depends Upon The Quality Of The Individuals It Produces.

No More Terrible Disaster Could Befall Your People Than For Them To Fall Into The Hands Of A Hero.

Killing With The Point Lacks Artistry, But Don't Let That Hold Your Hand When The Opening Presents Itself.

Give Me The Judgment Of Balanced Minds In Preference To Laws Every Time. Codes And Manuals Create Patterned Behavior. All Patterned Behavior Tends To Go Unquestioned, Gathering Destructive Momentum.

We Can Say That Maud'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.

What Do Such Machines Really Do? They Increase The Number Of Things We Can Do Without Thinking. Things We Do Without Thinking-there’s The Real Danger.

Many Have Marked The Speed With Which Muad'dib Learned The Necessities Of Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit, Of Course, Know The Basis Of This Speed. For The Others, We Can Say That 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 Is Shocking To Find How Many People Do Not Believe They Can Learn, And How Many More Believe Learning To Be Difficult. Muad'dib Knew That Every Experience Carries Its Lesson.

The Problem Of Leadership Is Inevitably: Who Will Play God?" Muad'dib

For Now Is My Grief Heavier Than The Sands Of The Seas, She Thought. This World Has Emptied Me Of All But The Oldest Purpose: Tomorrow's Life.

The Most Persistent Principles In The Universe Are Accident And Error.

Beware Of The Truth, Gentle Sister. Although Much Sought After, Truth Can Be Dangerous To The Seeker. Myths And Reassuring Lies Are Much Easier To Find And Believe. If You Find A Truth, Even A Temporary One, It Can Demand That You Make Painful Changes. Conceal Your Truths Within Words. Natural Ambiguity Will Protect You Then.

The Dice Cannot Read Their Own Spots.

Governments Do Not Know What They Cannot Do Until After They Cease To Be Governments. Each Government Carries The Seeds Of Its Own Destruction.

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.

We Are Questioning More Than The Philosophy Behind Our Dependence Upon Limited And Limiting Systems. We Question The Power Structures That Have Grown Up Around Such Systems.

Think On It, Chani: The Princess Will Have The Name, Yet She'll Live As Less Than A Concubine - Never To Know A Moment Of Tenderness From The Man To Whom She's Bound. While We, Chani, We Who Carry The Name Of Concubine - History Will Call Us Wives.

The Thing The Ecologically Illiterate Don't Realize About An Ecosystem Is That It's A System. A System! A System Maintains A Certain Fluid Stability That Can Be Destroyed By A Misstep In Just One Niche.

Demagogues Are So Easy To Identify. They Gesture A Lot And Speak With Pulpit Rhythms, Using Words That Ring Of Religious Fervour And God-fearing Sincerity. Sincerity With Nothing Behind It Takes So Much Practice. The Practice Can Always Be Detected. Repetition. Great Attempts To Keep Your Attention On Words.

They Say They Seek Security And Quiet, The Condition They Call Peace. Even As They Speak They Create The Seeds Of Turmoil And Violence.

War Is Behavior With Roots In The Single Cell Of The Primeval Seas. Eat Whatever You Touch Or It Will Eat You.

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.

To See Eternity Was To Be Exposed To Eternity's Whims, Oppressed By Endless Dimensions.

You've Heard Of Animals Chewing Off A Leg To Escape A Trap? There's An Animal Kind Of Trick. A Human Would Remain In The Trap, Endure The Pain, Feigning Death That He Might Kill The Trapper And Remove A Threat To His Kind.

Laws To Suppress Tend To Strengthen What They Would Prohibit.

Drug Prohibition

You Do Not Take From This Universe. It Grants You What It Will.

Fear Is The Mind-killer.

I Have Come To Believe That Holy Boredom Is Good And Sufficient Reason For The Invention Of Free Will.

There Should Be A Science Of Discontent. People Need Hard Times And Oppression To Develop Psychic Muscles.

The Successful Writer Listens To Himself.

Good Governance Never Depends Upon Laws, But Upon The Personal 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.

Personal Qualities

The Mind Goes On Working No Matter How We Try To Hold It Back.

These Are Illusions Of Popular History Which Successful Religion Must Promote: Evil Men Never Prosper; Only The Brave Deserve The Fair; Honesty Is The Best Policy; Actions Speak Louder Than Words; Virtue Always Triumpths; A Good Deed Is Its Own Rewards; Any Bad Human Can Be Reformed; Religious Talismans Protect One From Demon Possession; Only Females Understand The Ancient Mysteries; The Rich Are Doomed To Unhappiness

The Gift Of Words Is The Gift Of Deception And Illusion.

Prophecy And Prescience - How Can They Be Put To The Test In The Face Of Unanswered Questions? Consider: How Much Is Actual Prediction And How Much Is The Prophet Shaping The Future To Fit The Prophecy? What Are The Harmonics Inherent In The Act Of Prophecy? Does The Prophet See The Future Or Does He See A Line Of Weakness, A Fault Or Cleavage That He May Shatter With Words Or Decisions As A Diamond-cutter Shatters His Gem With A Blow Of The Knife?

Show Me A Completely Smooth Operation And I'll Show You Someone Who's Covering Mistakes. Real Boats Rock.

If There Is A Difference Between What Is Said And What Is Done, Only A Fool Believes What Was Said.

All Men Seek To Be Enlightened. Religion Is But The Most Ancient And Honorable Way In Which Men Have Striven To Make Sense Out Of God's Universe. Scientists Seek The Lawfulness Of Events. It Is The Task Of Religion To Fit Man Into This Lawfulness.

It Is Said That There Is A Principle Of Conflict Which Originated With The Single Cell And Has Never Deteriorated.

Ask What Infinity Might Produce And The Only Answer Possible Was, "anything." Any Good, Any Evil; Any God, Any Devil.

What You Of The Choam Directorate Seem Unable To Understand Is That You Seldom Find Real Loyalties In Commerce. ... Men Must Want To Do Things Of Their Own Innermost Drives. 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.

This Wise Man Observed That Wealth Is A Tool Of Freedom. But The Pursuit Of Wealth Is The Way To Slavery.

The Undeserving Maintain Power By Promoting Hysteria.

If You Need Something To Worship, Then Worship Life - All Life, Every Last Crawling Bit Of It! We're All In This Beauty Together!

Constitutions Become The Ultimate Tyranny," Paul Said. "they’re Organized Power On Such A Scale As To Be Overwhelming. The Constitution Is Social Power Mobilized And It Has No Conscience. It Can Crush The Highest And The Lowest, Removing All Dignity And Individuality. It Has An Unstable Balance Point And No Limitations.

Ecology Is Often Confused With Environmentalism, While In Fact, Environmentalism Often Leaves Out The Fact That People, Too, Can Be A Legitimate Part Of An Ecosystem.

Prophets Have A Way Of Dying By Violence.

To Know A Thing Well, Know It's Limits; Only When Pushed Beyond It's Tolerance Will It's True Nature Be Seen. -the Amtal Rule

What I'm Saying In My Books Boils Down To This: Mine Religion For What Is Good And Avoid What Is Deleterious. Don't Condemn People Who Need It. Be Very Careful When That Need Becomes Fanatical.

A Good Companion Is One You Wouldn't Mind Dying With.

A Man's Flesh Is His Own; The Water Belongs To The Tribe.

. . . Is To Attempt Seeing Truth Without Knowing Falsehood. It Is The Attempt To See The Light Without Knowing Darkness. It Cannot Be.

Emotions Are The Curse Of Logic.

The Meeting Between Ignorance And Knowledge, Between Brutality And Culture - It Begins In The Dignity With Which We Treat The Dead

Enemies Make You Stronger, Allies Make You Weaker.

When We Try To Conceal Our Innermost Drives, The Entire Being Screams Betrayal.

Learning A Language Represents Training In The Delusions Of That Language.

A Requirement Of Creativity Is That It Contributes To Change. Creativity Keeps The Creator Alive.

When Your Opponent Fears You, Then's The Moment When You Give The Fear Its Own Rein, Give It The Time To Work On Him. Let It Become Terror. The Terrified Man Fights Himself. Eventually, He Attacks In Desperation. That Is The Most Dangerous Moment, But The Terrified Man Can Be Trusted Usually To Make A Fatal Mistake. You Are Being Trained Here To Detect These Mistakes And Use Them.

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.

If You Think Of Yourselves As Helpless And Ineffectual, It Is Certain That You Will Create A Despotic Government To Be Your Master. The Wise Despot, Therefore, Maintains Among His Subjects A Popular Sense That They Are Helpless And Ineffectual.

Machine Makers Always Run The Risk Of Becoming Totally Machine.

Prisons Are Needed Only To Provide The Illusion That Courts And Police Are Effective. They're A Kind Of Job Insurance.

Only Gods Can Safely Risk Perfection ... It's A Dangerous Thing For A Man.

Can You Collect Chaos? Not Collecting, That Is The Ultimate Gathering. What Can You Gather Without Gathering Yourself.

Journalism Is The Entertainment Business.

Entertainment Business

Clinging To Any Form Of Conservatism Can Be Dangerous. Become Too Conservative And You Are Unprepared For Surprises. You Cannot Depend On Luck. Logic Is Blind And Often Knows Only Its Own Past. Logic Is Good For Playing Chess But Is Often Too Slow For The Needs Of Survival.

The Most Terrifying Things In The Universe Came From Human Minds.

Here Lies A Toppled God. His Fall Was Not A Small One. We Did But Build His Pedestal, A Narrow And A Tall One.

He Who Controls The Spice Controls The Universe.

Science Fiction

Try To Hold On To Youth And It Mocks You While It Sprints Away.

Words Can Carry Any Burden We Wish. All That's Required Is Agreement And A Tradition Upon Which To Build.

Survival Is The Ability To Swim In Strange Water.

Bureaucracy Destroys Initiative. There Is Little That Bureaucrats Hate More Than Innovation, Especially Innovation That Produces Better Results Than The Old Routines. Improvements Always Make Those At The Top Of The Heap Look Inept. Who Enjoys Appearing Inept?

Thought Provoking

Without Change, Something Sleeps Inside Us, And Seldom Awakens. The Sleeper Must Awaken.

Kindness Is The Beginning Of Cruelty.

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.

And Always, He Fought The Temptation To Choose A Clear, Safe Course, Warning 'that Path Leads Ever Down Into Stagnation.

The Future Remains Uncertain And So It Should, For It Is The Canvas Upon Which We Paint Our Desires. Thus Always The Human Condition Faces A Beautifully Empty Canvas. We Possess Only This Moment In Which To Dedicate Ourselves Continuously To The Sacred Presence Which We Share And Create.

To Endure Oneself May Be The Hardest Task In The Universe.

Chance Is The Nature Of Our Universe. [...] Madness Represents A Chaotic Reservoir Of Surprises. Some Surprises Can Be Valuable.

We’ve Lost Something Vital, I Tell You. When We Lost It, We Lost The Ability To Make Good Decisions. We Fall Upon Decisions These Days The Way We Fall Upon An Enemy—or Wait And Wait, Which Is A Form Of Giving Up, And We Allow The Decisions Of Others To Move Us. Have We Forgotten That We Were The Ones Who Set This Current Flowing?

Any Man Who Retreats Into A Cave Which Has Only One Opening Deserves To Die.

The Best Contribution One Can Make To Humanity Is To Improve Oneself.

A Leader 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.

Words Are Such Gross Machinery, So Primitive And Ambiguous.

The Stakes In Conflict Do Not Change. Battle Determines Who Will Control The Wealth Or Its Equivalent.

Democracy Is Susceptible To Being Led Astray By Having Scapegoats Paraded In Front Of The Electorate.

Men Always Fear Things Which Move By Themselves.

The Mistakes (of Leaders) Are Amplified By The Numbers Who Follow Them Without Question. Charismatic Leaders Tend To Build Up Followings, Power Structures And These Power Structures Tend To Be Taken Over By People Who Are Corruptible. I Don't Think That The Old Saw About 'power Corrupts And Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely' Is Accurate: I Think Power Attracts The Corruptible.

She Looked At Patches Of Blackness. Black Is A Blind Remembering, She Thought.

Justice Belongs To Those Who Claim It, But Let The Claimant Beware Lest He Create New Injustice By His Claim And Thus Set The Bloody Pendulum Of Revenge Into Its Inexorable Motion

You Should Never Be In The Company Of Anyone With Whom You Would Not Want To Die.

Argument Closes Off The Doors Of The Senses. It Always Masks Violence. Continued Too Long, Argument Always Leads To Violence.

The Purpose Of Argument Is To Change The Nature Of Truth.

There Are Limits To Power, As Those Who Put Their Hopes In A Constitution Always Discover.

The Real Universe Is Always One Step Beyond Logic.

If Enough Of Us Believe, A New Thing Can Be Made To Exist. Belief Structure Creates A Filter Through Which Chaos Is Sifted Into Order.

Humans Are Almost Always Lonely.

There Exists No Separation Between Gods And Men; One Blends Softly Casual Into The Other.

The Ultimate Test ... To See The Good In Evil And The Evil In Good.

When A Creature Has Developed Into One Thing, He Will Choose Death Rather Than Change Into His Opposite.

Peace For Any Prolonged Period Of Time Is Impossible. Humans Have A Natural Thirst For Chaos And War Is The Most Readily Available Form Of Chaos.

Beaurocracy Destroys Initiative.

Police Are Inevitably Corrupted. ... Police Always Observe That Criminals Prosper. It Takes A Pretty Dull Policeman To Miss The Fact That The Position Of Authority Is The Most Prosperous Criminal Position Available.

One Uses Power By Grasping It Lightly. To Grasp Too Strongly Is To Be Taken Over By Power, And Thus To Become Its Victim.

I'm Going To Rub Your Faces In Things You Try To Avoid. I Don't Find It Strange That All You Want To Believe Is Only That Which Comforts You. How Else Do Humans Invent The Traps Which Betray Us Into Mediocrity? How Else Do We Define Cowardice?

The Day Hums Sweetly When You Have Enough Bees Working For You.

The Most Important Survival Ability For Any Life Form Is The Ability To Change.

Most Lives Are A Flight From Selfhood. Most Prefer The Truths Of The Stable. You Stick Your Head Into The Stanchions And Munch Contentedly Until You Die. Others Use You For Their Purposes. Not Once Do You Look Outside The Stable To Lift Your Head And Be Your Own Creature.

Grief Is The Price Of Victory.

The Ferocity We Show Our Foes Must Be Tempered By The Lesson We Hope To Teach.

There Are Problems In This Universe For Which There Are No Answers. Nothing. Nothing Can Be Done.

Caution Is The Path To Mediocrity.

Life Is A Mask Through Which The Universe Expresses Itself.

The Highest Function Of Ecology Is The Understanding Of Consequences.

Enormous Problems Arise When Human Mistakes Are Made On The Grand Scale Available To A Superhero... Heroes Are Painful, Superheroes Are A Catastrophe. The Mistakes Of Superheroes Involve Too Many Of Us In Disaster.

Every Judgment Teeters On The Brink Of Error. To Claim Absolute Knowledge Is To Become Monstrous. Knowledge Is An Unending Adventure At The Edge Of Uncertainty.

Something Cannot Emerge From Nothing.

Answers Are A Perilous Grip On The Universe. They Can Appear Sensible Yet Explain Nothing.

Proper Teaching Is Recognized With Ease. You Can Know It Without Fail Because It Awakens Within You That Sensation Which Tells You This Is Something You Have Always Known.

If We Define Futurism As An Exploration Beyond Accepted Limits, Then The Nature Of Limiting Systems Becomes The First Object Of Exploration.

Riots And Comedy Are But Symptoms Of The Times, Profoundly Revealing. They Betray The Psychological Tone, The Deep Uncertainties....and The Striving For Something Better, Plus The Fear That Nothing Would Come Of It All.

Absolute Prediction Is Completion . . . Is Death!

Providence And Manifest Destiny Are Synonyms Often Invoked To Support Arguments Based On Wishful Thinking.

Ideas Are A Dime A Dozen. It's Execution That Counts.

The Gravest Error A Thinking Person Can Make Is To Believe That One Particular Version Of History Is Absolute Fact. History Is Recorded By A Series Of Observers, None Of Whom Is Impartial. The Facts Are Distorted By Sheer Passage Of Time And Thousands Of Years Of Humanity's Dark Ages, Deliberate Misrepresentations By Religious Sects, And The Inevitable Corruption That Comes From An Accumulation Of Careless Mistakes. The Wise Person, Then, Views History As A Set Of Lessons To Be Learned, Choices And Ramifications To Be Considered And Discussed, And Mistakes That Should Never Again Be Made.

Justice Required Resort To Law And That Could Be A Fickle Mistress, Subject Always To The Whims And Prejudices Of Those Who Administered The Laws.

Fear Is The Penalty Of Consciousness Forced To Stare At Itself.

The Flesh Surrenders Itself. Eternity Takes Back Its Own. Our Bodies Stirred These Waters Briefly, Danced With A Certain Intoxication Before The Love Of Life And Self, Dealt With A Few Strange Ideas, Then Submitted To The Instruments Of Time. What Can We Say Of This? I Occurred. I Am Not...yet, I Occurred.

There Is Only One True Wealth In All The Universe. I Have Given You Some Of It. I Have Given Your Father And Your Mate Some Of It. And Your Friends. This Wealth Is Living Time.

Question: Who Governs The Governors? Answer: Entropy

Unfortunately Most Criticism Is By Poseurs. They Use Their Comments About Someone Else's Work As A Platform On Which To Strike Poses. What They're Really Saying Is: "look At Me! Look At Me!"

I Am Not The Kind Of Person I Want To Be.

He Who Can Destroy A Thing, Can Control A Thing.

There's An Unwritten Compact Between You And The Reader. If Someone Enters A Bookstore And Sets Down Hard Earned Money (energy) For Your Book, You Owe That Person Some Entertainment And As Much More As You Can Give.

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.

To Come Under Siege Was The Inevitable Fate Of Power.

Mankind Has Only One Science… Its The Science Of Discontent.

Unused Power Was Like A Marionette With Visible Strings, Nobody Holding Them. A Compelling Attraction: I Could Make It Dance.

What Greater Gift Is There Than To Demonstrate You Need Not Fear Death?

The Best Prophets Lead You Up To The Curtain And Let You Peer Through For Yourself.

The Sleeper Must Awaken.

All Governments Suffer A Recurring Problem: Power Attracts Pathological Personalities. It Is Not That Power Corrupts But That It Is Magnetic To The Corruptible. Such People Have A Tendency To Become Drunk On Violence, A Condition To Which They Are Quickly Addicted.

What Does A Mirror Look At?

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.

But, Later, Coming Back And Reading What I Have Produced, I Am Unable To Detect The Difference Between What Came Easily And When I Had To Sit Down And Say, "well, Now It's Writing Time And Now I'll Write.

All Proofs Inevitably Lead To Propositions Which Have No Proof! All Things Are Known Because We Want To Believe In Them.

Sympathy For The Enemy -- A Weakness Of Police And Armies Alike. Most Perilous Are The Unconscious Sympathies Directing You To Preserve Your Enemy Intact Because The Enemy Is Your Justification For Existence.

One Learns From Books And Example Only That Certain Things Can Be Done. Actual Learning Requires That You Do Those Things.

The Night Is A Tunnel ... A Hole Into Tomorrow.

Fear Is The Mind-killer. Fear Is The Little-death That Brings Total Obliteration.

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.

Ambitions Tend To Remain Undisturbed By Realities.

Too Much Knowledge Never Makes For Simple Decisions.

If You Focus Your Awareness Only Upon Your Own Rightness, Then You Invite The Forces Of Opposition To Overwhelm You.

Nature Does Not Make Mistakes. Right And Wrong Are Human Categories.

Producing Perfection From Imperfection Is, After All, The Highest Of Art Forms.

This Is The Awe-inspiring Universe Of Magic: There Are No Atoms, Only Waves And Motions All Around. Here, You Discard All Belief In Barriers To Understanding. You Put Aside Understanding Itself. This Universe Cannot Be Seen, Cannot Be Heard, Cannot Be Detected In Any Way By Fixed Perceptions. It Is The Ultimate Void Where No Preordained Screens Occur Upon Which Forms May Be Projected. You Have Only One Awareness Here—the Screen Of The Magi: Imagination! Here, You Learn What It Is To Be Human. You Are A Creator Of Order, Of Beautiful Shapes And Systems, An Organizer Of Chaos.

When Law And Duty Are One, United By Religion, You Never Become Fully Conscious, Fully Aware Of Yourself. You Are Always A Little Less Than An Individual.

We Tend To Become Like The Worst In Those We Oppose.

Small Souls Who Seek Power Over Others First Destroy The Faith Those Others Might Have In Themselves.

Ecology Is A Dirty Seven-letter Word To Many People. They Are Like Heavy Sleepers Refusing To Be Aroused. "leave Me Alone! It's Not Time To Get Up Yet!"

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?

Education Is No Substitute For Intelligence.

When He Wanted, He Could Radiate Charm And Sincerity, But I Often Wonder In These Later Days If Anything About Him Was As It Seemed. I Think Now He Was A Man Fighting Constantly To Escape The Bars Of An Invisible Cage.

History Is A Constant Race Between Invention And Catastrophe.

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 Collapses.

Never Attempt To Reason With People Who Know They Are Right!

One Must Cast Off Old Agonies As A Snake Casts Off Its Skin--only To Grow A New Set And Accept All Of Their Limitations.

Death Makes A Prophet's Voice Louder.

We Bene Gesserit Sift People To Find The Humans.

What Do You Despise? By This Are You Truly Known.

The Universe Does Not Work By Our Rules

The Unclouded Eye Was Better, No Matter What It Saw.

It Is Not The Present Which Unfluences The Future, Thou Fool, But The Future Which Forms The Present. You Have It All Backward. Since The Future Is Set, An Unfolding Of Events Which Will Assure That Future Is Fixed And Inevitable.

Growth Is Limited By That Necessity Which Is Present In The Least Amount.

Order Generally Was A Product Of Human Activity. Chaos Existed As A Raw Material From Which To Create Order.

The Person Who Experiences Greatness Must Have A Feeling For The Myth He Is In.

No Matter How Much We Ask After The Truth, Self-awareness Is Often Unpleasant. We Do Not Feel Kindly Toward The Truthsayer.

When Politics And Religion Are Intermingled, A People Is Suffused With A Sense Of Invulnerability, And Gathering Speed In Their Forward Charge, They Fail To See The Cliff Ahead Of Them

To Endure Oneself May Be The Hardest Task In The Universe. You Cannot Hire A Wise Man Or Any Other Intellect To Solve It For You. There's No Writ Of Inquest Or Calling Of Witness To Provide Answers.

Bless The Maker And His Water. Bless The Coming And Going Of Him. May His Passage Cleanse The World. May He Keep The World For His People.

The Scarce Water Of Dune Is An Exact Analog Of Oil Scarcity. Choam Is Opec.

It Must Certainly Be More Dangerous To Live In Ignorance Than To Live With Knowledge.

The Act Of Saying That Things Exist That Cannot Be Described In Words Shakes A Universe Where Words Are The Supreme Belief.

Most Of Us Choose Our Companions And Surroundings To Reflect Ourselves.

A Ruler Must Learn To Persuade And Not To Compel.

Caution Is The Path To Mediocrity. Gliding, Passionless Mediocrity Is All That Most People Think They Can Achieve.

Try Looking Into That Place Where You Dare Not Look! You'll Find Me There, Staring Out At You!

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