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Life Cannot Find Reasons To Sustain It, Cannot Be A Source Of Decent Natural Regard, Unless Each Of Us Resolves To Breathe Such Qualities Into It.
-Frank Herbert
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Life Cannot Find Reasons

Frank Herbert
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Life Cannot Find Reasons To Sustain It, Cannot Be A Source Of Decent Natural Regard, Unless Each Of Us Resolves To Breathe Such Qualities Into It.

Understanding the Quote: "life cannot find reasons to sustain it, cannot be a source of..."

This quote by Frank Herbert reflects deeply on the theme of quality. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Quality, Dignity, Breathe, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Frank Herbert interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert is celebrated for insightful thoughts on quality and dignity. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Quality
Dignity
Breathe
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Much That Was Called Religion Has Carried An Unconscious Attitude Of Hostility Toward Life. True Religion Must Teach That Life Is Filled With Joys Pleasing To The Eye Of God, That Knowledge Without Action Is Empty. All Men Must See That The Teaching Of Religion By Rules And Rote Is Largely A Hoax. The 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’ve Always Known.
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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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We Faced It And Did Not Resist. The Storm Passed Through Us And Around Us. It's Gone, But We Remain.
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To The Soul's Desires The Body Listens What The Flesh Requires Keeps The Heart Imprisoned
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Making Workable Choices Occurs In A Crucible Of Informative Mistakes. Thus Intelligence Accepts Fallibility. And When Absolute (infallible) Choices Are Not Known, Intelligence Takes Chances With Limited Data In An Arena Where Mistakes Are Not Only Possible But Also Necessary.
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Love Is Not A Mood, But A Dynamic Way Of Being.
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Any Road Followed Precisely To Its End Leads Precisely Nowhere.
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Paired Opposites Define Your Longings And Those Longings Imprison You.
Opposites
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The Dice Cannot Read Their Own Spots.
Perception
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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.
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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.
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Education Is No Substitute For Intelligence.
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Time Can Also Be A Place.... Everything Depends On Where You Are Standing, On Where You Look Or What You Hear. The Measure Of It Is Found In Consciousness Itself.
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Ideas Are A Dime A Dozen. It's Execution That Counts.
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You Aren't Thinking Or Really Existing Unless You're Willing To Risk Even Your Own Sanity In The Judgement Of Your Existence.
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Power Tends To Isolate Those Who Hold Too Much Of It. Eventually, They Lose Touch With Reality ... And Fall.
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The Mystery Of Life Isn't A Problem To Solve, But A Reality To Experience.
Love
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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.
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Revenge Is For Children And The Emotionally Retarded.
Children
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It Must Certainly Be More Dangerous To Live In Ignorance Than To Live With Knowledge.
Ignorance
Dangerous
Thou Shalt Not Make A Machine In The Likeness Of A Human Mind.
Mind
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Unused Power Was Like A Marionette With Visible Strings, Nobody Holding Them. A Compelling Attraction: I Could Make It Dance.
Strings
Compelling
Visible
No Matter How Much We Ask After The Truth, Self-awareness Is Often Unpleasant. We Do Not Feel Kindly Toward The Truthsayer.
Truth
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The Clear And Safe Path Leads Evermore Into Stagnation
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Growth Is Limited By That Necessity Which Is Present In The Least Amount.
Growth
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The Only Past Which Endures Lies Wordlessly Within You.
Lying
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If You Need Something To Worship, Then Worship Life - All Life, Every Last Crawling Bit Of It! We're All In This Beauty Together!
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Every Civilization Must Contend With An Unconscious Force Which Can Block, Betray, Or Countermand Almost Any Conscious Intention Of The Collectivity.
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In My Estimation, More Misery Has Been Created By Reformers Than By Any Other Force In Human History.
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Control The Coinage And The Courts — Let The Rabble Have The Rest.
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History Is A Constant Race Between Invention And Catastrophe.
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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
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Kindness Is The Beginning Of Cruelty.
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The Stakes In Conflict Do Not Change. Battle Determines Who Will Control The Wealth Or Its Equivalent.
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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.
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Any Road Followed Precisely To Its End Leads Precisely Nowhere. Climb The Mountain Just A Little Bit To Test It's A Mountain. From The Top Of The Mountain, You Cannot See The Mountain.
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There Has Never Been A Truly Selfless Rebel, Just Hypocrites—conscious Hypocrites Or Unconscious Hypocrites, It’s All The Same.
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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.
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I Live In An Apocalyptic Dream. My Steps Fit Into It So Precisely That I Fear Most Of All I Will Grow Bored Reliving The Thing So Exactly.
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Words Are Such Gross Machinery, So Primitive And Ambiguous.
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The Singular Multiplicity Of This Universe Draws My Deepest Attention. It Is A Thing Of Ultimate Beauty. Leto Ii
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Always Prepare Secondary Ways Of Dealing With Problems.
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One Learns From Books And Example Only That Certain Things Can Be Done. Actual Learning Requires That You Do Those Things.
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It Is Said That There Is A Principle Of Conflict Which Originated With The Single Cell And Has Never Deteriorated.
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Seek Freedom And Become Captive Of Your Desires. Seek Discipline And Find Your Liberty.
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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.
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Silence Is Often The Best Thing To Say.
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To Stand Alone Against All Adversity Is The Most Sacred Moment Of Existence.
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The Concept Of Progress Acts As A Protective Mechanism To Shield Us From The Terrors Of The Future.
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Enemies Make You Stronger, Allies Make You Weaker.
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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.
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It Is A Wise Man That Does Know The Contented Man Is Never Poor, Whilst The Discontented Man Is Never Rich.
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When We Try To Conceal Our Innermost Drives, The Entire Being Screams Betrayal.
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Reason Is The First Victim Of Strong Emotion.
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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.
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His Voice Was Low, Charged With Unspeakable Adjectives.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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Try To Hold On To Youth And It Mocks You While It Sprints Away.
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Dangers Lurk In All Systems. Systems Incorporate The Unexamined Beliefs Of Their Creators. Adopt A System, Accept Its Beliefs, And You Help Strengthen The Resistance To Change
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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 To Late.
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To Determine If You're Human. Be Silent.
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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!"
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If You Ask "should We Be In Space?" You Ask A Nonsense Question. We Are In Space. We Will Be In Space.
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Something Cannot Emerge From Nothing.
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Most Deadly Errors Arise From Obsolete Assumptions.
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Power Attracts The Corruptible. Suspect Any Who Seek It.
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What Are You, Child, That You Need Time To Learn About Yourself?
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Providence And Manifest Destiny Are Synonyms Often Invoked To Support Arguments Based On Wishful Thinking.
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Thinking
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Any Man Who Retreats Into A Cave Which Has Only One Opening Deserves To Die.
Men
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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.
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When You Imagine Mistakes, There Can Be No Self-defense.
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Major Flaw In Government Arise From A Fear Of Making Radical Internal Changes Even Though A Need Is Clearly Seen.
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Parting With Friends Is A Sadness. A Place Is Only A Place.
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Parting
Law Of The Minimum: "the Worst Potential Competition For Any Organism Can Come From Its Own Kind. The Species Consumes Necessities. Growth Is Limited By That Necessity Which Is Present In The Least Amount. The Least Favourable Condition Controls The Rate Of Growth."
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When A Wise Man Does Not Understand, He Says: "i Do Not Understand." The Fool And The Uncultured Are Ashamed Of Their Ignorance. They Remain Silent When A Question Could Bring Them Wisdom.
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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.
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A Requirement Of Creativity Is That It Contributes To Change. Creativity Keeps The Creator Alive.
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The Scarce Water Of Dune Is An Exact Analog Of Oil Scarcity. Choam Is Opec.
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Knowing Where The Trap Is-- That's The First Step In Evading It.
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The Young Reed Dies So Easily. Beginnings Are Times Of Great Peril.
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Try Looking Into That Place Where You Dare Not Look! You'll Find Me There, Staring Out At You!
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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.
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You Do Not Take From This Universe. It Grants You What It Will.
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I Never Thought It Would Be Easy To Serve God," She Said. "i Just Didn't Think It Would Be This Hard.
Thinking
Would Be
Easy
Historians Exercise Great Power And Some Of Them Know It. They Recreate The Past, Changing It To Fit Their Own Interpretations. Thus, They Change The Future As Well.
Exercise
Past
Fit
Anything Outside Yourself, This You Can See And Apply Your Logic To It. But It's A Human Trait That When We Encounter Personal Problems, These 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.
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Blame
Show Me A Completely Smooth Operation And I'll Show You Someone Who's Covering Mistakes. Real Boats Rock.
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Rocks
When Strangers Meet, Great Allowance Should Be Made For Differences Of Custom And Training.
Differences
Training
Stranger
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.
Future
Journey
Desire
Educational Bureaucracies Dull A Child's Questing Sensitivity.
Children
Educational
Dull
The Oppressed Always Learned From And Copied The Oppressor. When The Tables Were Turned, The Stage Was Set For Another Round Of Revenge And Violence -- Roles Reversed. And Reversed And Reversed Ad Nauseam.
Revenge
Tables
Violence
I Have No Fear, For Fear Is The Little Death That Kills Me Over And Over. Without Fear, I Die But Once.
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When I Am Weaker Than You, I Ask You For Freedom Because That Is According To Your Principles; When I Am Stronger Than You, I Take Away Your Freedom Because That Is According To My Principles.
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A Storm Is Coming; Our Storm. Emperor - We Come For You!
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Atheism
Storm
The Day Hums Sweetly When You Have Enough Bees Working For You.
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Enough
Polish Comes From The Cities; Wisdom From The Desert.
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Desert
Polish
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.
Law
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Mind
The Best Contribution One Can Make To Humanity Is To Improve Oneself.
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Contribution
Oneself
There Is In Each Of Us An Ancient Force That Takes And An Ancient Force That Gives. A Man Finds Little Difficulty Facing That Place Within Himself Where The Taking Force Dwells, But It's Almost Impossible For Him To See Into The Giving Force Without Changing Into Something Other Than Man. For A Woman, The Situation Is Reversed. ... These Things Are So Ancient Within Us That They're Ground Into Each Separate Cell Of Our Bodies... It's As Easy To Be Overwhelmed By Giving As By Taking.
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The Greatest And Most Important Problems Of Life Cannot Be Solved. They Can Only Be Outgrown.
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Problem
There Are Limits To Power, As Those Who Put Their Hopes In A Constitution Always Discover.
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Constitution
A Man Is A Fool Not To Put Everything He Has, At Any Given Moment, Into What He Is Creating.
Creativity
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Creating
Radicals Are Only To Be Feared When You Try To Suppress Them. You Must Demonstrate That You Will Use The Best Of What They Offer.
Trying
Use
Radical
The Night Is A Tunnel ... A Hole Into Tomorrow.
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Tunnels
Tomorrow
Only Gods Can Safely Risk Perfection ... It's A Dangerous Thing For A Man.
Men
Perfection
Risk
Logic Is Good For Playing Chess But Is Often Too Slow For The Needs Of Survival.
Survival
Needs
Playing Chess
If You Live In Bad Faith, Lies Will Appear To You Like The Truth.
Lying
Ifs
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.
Powerful
Government
Judging
The Act Of Saying That Things Exist That Cannot Be Described In Words Shakes A Universe Where Words Are The Supreme Belief.
Belief
Shakes
Supreme
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.
Princess
Men
Thinking
Do Actions Agree With Words? There's Your Measure Of Reliability. Never Confine Yourself To The Words.
Reliability
Action
Agree
Life - All Life - Is In The Service Of Life. Necessary Nutrients Are Made Available To Life By Life In Greater And Greater Richness As The Diversity Of Life Increases. The Entire Landscape Comes Alive, Filled With Relationships And Relationships Within Relationships.
Diversity
Alive
Landscape
That Is One Of The Law's Purposes, Of Course: To Test The Qualities Of Those Who Choose To Employ It.
Law
Quality
Purpose
I Have Come To Believe That Holy Boredom Is Good And Sufficient Reason For The Invention Of Free Will.
Believe
Boredom
Free Will
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.
Life
Real
Princess
Power Attracts The Corruptible. Suspect All Who Seek It ... We Should Grant Power Over Our Affairs Only To Those Who Are Reluctant To Hold It And Then Only Under Conditions That Increase That Reluctance.
Affair
Increase
Should
I Am Not The Kind Of Person I Want To Be.
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Kind
Persons
Absolute Prediction Is Completion . . . Is Death!
Predictions
Absolutes
Completion
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.
Past
Luck
Survival
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.
People
Water
World
Irreverence Is A Most Necessary Ingredient Of Religion. Not To Speak Of Its Importance In Philosophy. Irreverence Is The Only Way Left To Us For Testing Our Universe.
Philosophy
Irreverence
Way
Survival Is The Ability To Swim In Strange Water.
Water
Swim
Survival
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.
Men
Thinking
Machines
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.
Strong
Moving
Greatness
How Often It Is That The Angry Man Rages Denial Of What His Inner Self Is Telling Him.
Anger
Men
Self
Belief Can Be Manipulated. Only Knowledge Is Dangerous.
Belief
Dangerous
Knowledge Is Dangerous
We Tend To Become Like The Worst In Those We Oppose.
Enemy
Worst
Killing With The Point Lacks Artistry, But Don't Let That Hold Your Hand When The Opening Presents Itself.
Art
Hands
Killing
Leto Turned A Hard Stare At Kynes. And Kynes, Returning The Stare, Found Himself Troubled By A Fact He Had Observed Here: This Duke Was Concerned More Over The Men Than He Was Over The Spice. He Risked His Own Life, And That Of His Son To Save The Men. He Passed Off The Loss Of A Spice Crawler With A Gesture. The Threat To Men's Lives Had Him In A Rage. A Leader Such As That Would Command Fanatic Loyalty. He Would Be Difficult To Defeat. Against His Own Will And All Previous Judgements, Kynes Admitted To Himself: I Like This Duke.
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Son
Loss
Humans Are Almost Always Lonely.
Lonely
Humanity
Humans
The Proximity Of A Desirable Thing Tempts One To Overindulgence. On That Path Lies Danger.
Lying
Path
Danger
Argument Closes Off The Doors Of The Senses. It Always Masks Violence. Continued Too Long, Argument Always Leads To Violence.
Doors
Long
Violence
To Endure Oneself May Be The Hardest Task In The Universe.
Tasks
May
Endure
Law Is The Ultimate Science.
Law
Ultimate
The Convoluted Wording Of Legalisms Grew Up Around The Necessity To Hide From Ourselves The Violence We Do To Each Other.
Law
Violence
Grew Up
The Most Persistent Principles In The Universe Are Accident And Error.
Errors
Principles
Persistent
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.
Book
People
Needs
A Man's Flesh Is His Own; The Water Belongs To The Tribe.
Men
Water
Flesh
Guilt Starts As A Feeling Of Failure.
Feelings
Guilt
Thrive
A Ruler Must Learn To Persuade And Not To Compel.
Rulers
A Beginning Is The Time For Taking The Most Delicate Care That The Balances Are Correct.
Balance
Care
Delicate
War Is Behavior With Roots In The Single Cell Of The Primeval Seas. Eat Whatever You Touch Or It Will Eat You.
War
Cells
Sea
Does A Population Have Informed Consent When A Ruling Minority Acts In Secret To Ignite A War, Doing This To Justify The Existence Of The Minority's Forces? ... Failure To Provide Full Information For Informed Consent On Such An Issue Represents An Ultimate Crime.
War
Issues
Secret
The Successful Writer Listens To Himself.
Successful
The Function Of Science Fiction Is Not Always To Predict The Future But Sometimes To Prevent It.
Science
Fiction
Sometimes
The Person Who Experiences Greatness Must Have A Feeling For The Myth He Is In.
Greatness
Feelings
Myth
The Person Who Takes The Banal And Ordinary And Illuminates It In A New Way Can Terrify. We Do Not Want Our Ideas Changed.
Ideas
Ordinary
Want
A Voice Hissed: "he Sheds Tears!" It Was Taken Around The Ring "usal Gives Moisture To The Dead!" He Felt Fingers Touch His Damp Cheek, Heard The Awed Whispers.
Taken
Voice
Giving
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.
Beautiful
Order
Imagination
A Process Cannot Be Understood By Stopping It. Understanding Must Move With The Flow Of The Process, Must Join It And Flow With It.
Inspirational
Business
Moving
A Good Companion Is One You Wouldn't Mind Dying With.
Mind
Dying
Companion
To Suspect Your Own Mortality Is To Know The Beginning Of Terror, To Learn Irrefutably That You Are Mortal Is To Know The End Of Terror.
Demise
Mortality
Ends
In 1054, The Patriarch Of Constantinople And The Pope Excommunicated Each Other. That Was The End Of Holiness For Both Churches.
Church
Holiness
Pope
The Unclouded Eye Was Better, No Matter What It Saw.
Eye
Saws
Matter
There's A Lesson In Every Temptation.
Temptation
Lessons
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.
Real
Thinking
Numbers
A Popular Man Arouses The Jealousy Of The Powerful.
Powerful
Men
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
Religious
Honesty
Successful
Laws To Suppress Tend To Strengthen What They Would Prohibit.
Law
Drug Prohibition
When A Creature Has Developed Into One Thing, He Will Choose Death Rather Than Change Into His Opposite.
Opposites
Creatures
One Thing
Politics: The Art Of Appearing Candid And Completely Open While Concealing As Much As Possible.
Art
Candid
Concealing
Words Themselves Were The Ultimate Barrier To Revelation.
Revelations
Barriers
Ultimate
Mankind Has Only One Science… Its The Science Of Discontent.
Mankind
Discontent
The Highest Function Of Ecology Is The Understanding Of Consequences.
Nature
Understanding
Environment
Never Attempt To Reason With People Who Know They Are Right!
People
Reason
Knows
We Sift Reality Through Screens Composed Of Ideas . (and Such Ideas Have Their Roots In Older Ideas.) Such Idea Systems Are Necessarily Limited By Language , By The Ways We Can Describe Them. That Is To Say: Language Cuts The Grooves In Which Our Thoughts Move. If We Seek New Validity Forms (other Laws And Other Orders) We Must Step Outside Language.
Moving
Cutting
Reality
Confine Yourself To Observing And You Always Miss The Point Of Your Life. The Object Can Be Stated This Way: Live The Best Life You Can. Life Is A Game Whose Rules You Learn If You Leap Into It And Play It To The Hilt. Otherwise, You Are Caught Off Balance, Continually Surprised By The Shifting Play. Non-players Often Whine And Complain That Luck Always Passes Them By. They Refuse To See That They Can Create Some Of Their Own Luck. Darwi Odrade - Chapterhouse: Dune
Player
Games
Missing
If You Rely Only On Your Eyes, Your Other Senses Weaken.
Eye
Rely
Senses
Scientists Seek The Lawfulness Of Events. It Is The Task Of Religion To Fit Man Into This Lawfulness.
Men
Events
Tasks
I Give You The Chameleon, Whose Ability To Blend Itself Into The Background Tells You All You Need To Know About The Roots Of Ecology And The Foundations Of A Personal Identity
Roots
Giving
Identity
The Ferocity We Show Our Foes Must Be Tempered By The Lesson We Hope To Teach.
Lessons
Teach
Shows
Every Civilization Depends Upon The Quality Of The Individuals It Produces.
Civilization
Quality
Individual
Who Are The Rabble And Who Are The Ruled?
Technology Is Both A Tool For Helping Humans And For Destroying Them. This Is The Paradox Of Our Times Which We're Compelled To Face.
Technology
Tools
Faces
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!"
Criticism
Looks
Use
A World Is Supported By Four Things: The Learning Of Wise, The Justice Of 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.
Wise
Art
Prayer
Order Generally Was A Product Of Human Activity. Chaos Existed As A Raw Material From Which To Create Order.
Order
Raw Materials
Chaos
What Does A Mirror Look At?
Mirrors
Doe
Looks
. . . Is To Attempt Seeing Truth Without Knowing Falsehood. It Is The Attempt To See The Light Without Knowing Darkness. It Cannot Be.
Truth
Light
Knowing
If You Believe Certain Words, You Believe Their Hidden Arguments. When You Believe Something Is Right Or Wrong, True Or False, You Believe The Assumptions In The Words Which Express The Arguments. Such Assumptions Are Often Full Of Holes, But Remain Most Precious To The Convinced.
Believe
True Or False
Assumption
Ready Comprehension Is Often A Knee-jerk Response And The Most Dangerous Form Of Understanding. It Blinks An Opaque Screen Over Your Ability To Learn. The Judgmental Precedents Of Law Function That Way, Littering Your Path With Dead Ends. Be Warned. Understand Nothing. All Comprehension Is Temporary.
Law
Understanding
Over You
What You Cannot Control, You Must Accept.
Accepting
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.
Believe
Order
Filters
The Joy Of Living, Its Beauty, Is All Bound Up In The Fact That Life Can Surprise You.
Life
Joy
Facts
Atrocity Is Recognized As Such By Victim And Predator Alike, By All Who Learn About It At Whatever Remove. Atrocity Has No Excuses, No Mitigating Argument. Atrocity Never Balances Or Rectifies The Past. Atrocity Merely Arms The Future For More Atrocity. It Is Self-perpetuating Upon Itself - A Barbarous Form Of Incest. Whoever Commits Atrocity Also Commits Those Future Atrocities Thus Bred.
Past
Self
Atrocities Committed
Confine Yourself To Observing And You Always Miss The Point Of Your Own Life.
Missing
Observing
The Problem Of Leadership Is Inevitably: Who Will Play God?" Muad'dib
Play
Problem
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.
Coffee
Moving
Men
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.
Greatness
Civilization
Quality
The Power To Destroy A Thing Is The Absolute Control Over It.
Over It
Absolutes
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