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To Be A God Can Ultimately Become Boring And Degrading. There'd Be Reason Enough For The Invention Of Free Will! A God Might Wish To Escape Into Sleep And Be Alive Only In The Unconscious Projections Of His Dream-creatures.

-Frank Herbert

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To Be A God

Frank Herbert

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To Be A God Can Ultimately Become Boring And Degrading. There'd Be Reason Enough For The Invention Of Free Will! A God Might Wish To Escape Into Sleep And Be Alive Only In The Unconscious Projections Of His Dream-creatures.

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Anything Less Than Abject Submission Has To Have Some Attack In It.

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.

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

Ambitions Tend To Remain Undisturbed By Realities.

There Is Not Secret To Balance. You Just Have To Feel The Waves.

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

Religion, Too, Is A Weapon. What Manner Of Weapon Is Religion When It Becomes The Government?

Good Subjects Must Feel Guilty. The Guilt Begins As A Feeling Of Failure. The Good Autocrat Provides Many Opportunities For Failure In The Populace.

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.

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

Laws To Suppress Tend To Strengthen What They Would Prohibit.

Drug Prohibition

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

In Politics, The Tripod Is He Most Unstable Of All Structures. It's Be Bad Enough Without The Complication Of A Feudal Trade Culture Which Turns Its Back On Most Science.

Most Believe That A Satisfactory Future Requires A Return To An Idealized Past, A Past Which Never In Fact Existed.

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

When Strangers Meet, Great Allowance Should Be Made For Differences Of Custom And Training.

Often I Must Speak Otherwise Than I Think. This Is Called Diplomacy.

Most Civilisation Is Based On Cowardice. It's So Easy To Civilize By Teaching Cowardice. You Water Down The Standards Which Would Lead To Bravery. You Restrain The Will. You Regulate The Appetites. You Fence In The Horizons. You Make A Law For Every Movement. You Deny The Existence Of Chaos. You Teach Even The Children To Breathe Slowly. You Tame.

Madness In Method, That's Genius

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

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?

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

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.

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

Who Are The Rabble And Who Are The Ruled?

We Accept Too Damned Many Things On The Explanations Of People Who Could Have Good Reasons For Lying.

Guilt Starts As A Feeling Of Failure.

I Have No Fear, For Fear Is The Little Death That Kills Me Over And Over. Without Fear, I Die But Once.

In 1054, The Patriarch Of Constantinople And The Pope Excommunicated Each Other. That Was The End Of Holiness For Both Churches.

Politics: The Art Of Appearing Candid And Completely Open While Concealing As Much As Possible.

Beyond A Critical Point Within A Finite Space, Freedom Diminishes As Numbers Increase. This Is As True Of Humans As It Is Of Gas Molecules In A Sealed Flask. The Human Question Is Not How Many Can Possibly Survive Within The System, But What Kind Of Existence Is Possible For Those Who So Survive.

Ultimately, All Things Are Known Because You Want To Believe You Know.

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.

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

If We Deny Emotion, We Lose All Touch With Our Internal Universe.

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

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.

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

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."

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.

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

A Stone Is Heavy And The Sand Is Weighty; But A Fool's Wrath Is Heavier Than Them Both.

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.

Technology Tends Toward Avoidance Of Risks By Investors. Uncertainty Is Ruled Out If Possible. People Generally Prefer The Predictable. Few Recognize How Destructive This Can Be, How It Imposes Severe Limits On Variability And Thus Makes Whole Populations Fatally Vulnerable To The Shocking Ways Our Universe Can Throw The Dice.

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.

You Aren't Thinking Or Really Existing Unless You're Willing To Risk Even Your Own Sanity In The Judgement Of Your Existence.

The Beginning Of Knowledge Is The Discovery Of Something We Do Not Understand.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

My Lungs Taste The Air Of Time,blown Past Falling Sands.

A Person Needs New Experiences. They Jar Something Deep Inside, Allowing You To Grow. Without Them, It Sleeps- Seldom To Awaken. The Sleeper Must Awaken.

New Experiences

All Governments Suffer A Recurring Problem: Power Attracts Pathological Personalities.

Humans Are Almost Always Lonely.

Once Human Beings Realize Something Can Be Done, They're Not Satisfied Until They've Done It.

A Killer With The Manners Of A Rabbit - This Is The Most Dangerous Kind.

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.

We Never Get Far From Wealth And All Of Its Masks When We Deal With Power.

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

Thinking You Know Something Is A Sure Way To Blind Yourself.

The Summer Night Comes Brooding Down On Earth, As Love Comes Brooding Down On Human Hearts, With Bliss That Hath No Utterance Save Rich Tears. She Floats In Fragrance Down The Smiling Dark, Foldeth A Kiss Upon The Lips Of Life-- Curtaineth Into Rest The Weary World-- And Shuts Us In With All Our Hid Delights.

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.

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.

I Don't Speak ... I Operate A Machine Called Language. It Creaks And Groans, But Is Mine Own.

The Greatest And Most Important Problems Of Life Cannot Be Solved. They Can Only Be Outgrown.

Reason Is The First Victim Of Strong Emotion.

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.

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.

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.

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

When You Imagine Mistakes, There Can Be No Self-defense.

Blood Is Thicker Than Water, But Politics Are Thicker Than Blood.

The Joy Of Living, Its Beauty, Is All Bound Up In The Fact That Life Can Surprise You.

To The Soul's Desires The Body Listens What The Flesh Requires Keeps The Heart Imprisoned

To Be A God Can Ultimately Become Boring And Degrading. There'd Be Reason Enough For The Invention Of Free Will! A God Might Wish To Escape Into Sleep And Be Alive Only In The Unconscious Projections Of His Dream-creatures.

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.

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.

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.

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

Survival Is The Ability To Swim In Strange Water.

Words Themselves Were The Ultimate Barrier To Revelation.

The Concept Of Progress Acts As A Protective Mechanism To Shield Us From The Terrors Of The Future.

Grief Is The Price Of Victory.

Belief Can Be Manipulated. Only Knowledge Is Dangerous.

Knowledge Is Dangerous

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.

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

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.

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.

Most Men Go Through Life Unchallenged, Except At The Final Moment.

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

The Basic Lesson Of Our Relativistic Universe Is That Things Change. Any Power Must Always Meet A Greater Power.

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.

I Never Thought It Would Be Easy To Serve God," She Said. "i Just Didn't Think It Would Be This Hard.

I Cry For Those Not Yet Dead.

A Storm Is Coming; Our Storm. Emperor - We Come For You!

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?

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

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

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.

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

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!"

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

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

Money To A Writer Is Time To Write.

The Hearts Of All Men Dwell In The Same Wilderness.

Parting With Friends Is A Sadness. A Place Is Only A Place.

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

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.

If I'd Been Born In My Grandfather's Time, I'd Have Made My Grandfather's Mistakes. Theres No Doubt Of It. I Just Don't Want To Make My Grandfather's Mistakes Today.

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

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.

It Is Impossible To Live In The Past, Difficult To Live In The Present And A Waste To Live In The Future.

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.

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.

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

The Mystery Of Life Isn't A Problem To Solve, But A Reality To Experience.

You Know It's Love When You Want To Give Joy And Damn The Consequences.

A Creature Who Has Spent His Life Creating One Particular Representation Of His Selfdom Will Die Rather Than Become The Antithesis Of That Representation

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.

Atrocities Committed

If All Those Around You Believe Some Particular Thing, You Will Soon Be Tempted To Share In That Belief.

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.

Since Every Individual Is Accountable Ultimately To The Self, The Formation Of That Self Demands Our Utmost Care And Attention.

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.

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.

Enemies Strengthn You. Allies Weaken You.

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

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.

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

Question: Who Governs The Governors? Answer: Entropy

Educational Bureaucracies Dull A Child's Questing Sensitivity. The Young Must Be Dampened Down. Never Let Them Know How Good They Can Be. That Brings Change. Spend Lots Of Committee Time Talking About How To Deal With Exceptional Students. Don't Spend Any Time Dealing With How The Conventional Teacher Feels Threatened By Emerging Talents And Squelches Them Because Of A Deep-seated Desire To Feel Superior And Safe In A Safe Environment.

If Wishes Were Fishes, We'd All Cast Nets.

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

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.

Major Flaw In Government Arise From A Fear Of Making Radical Internal Changes Even Though A Need Is Clearly Seen.

The Highest Function Of Ecology Is The Understanding Of Consequences.

Religions Often Partake Of The Myth Of Progress That Shields Us From The Terrors Of An Uncertain Future.

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

In My Estimation, More Misery Has Been Created By Reformers Than By Any Other Force In Human History.

Balance Is What Distinguishs A People From A Mob.

It Was Mostly Sweet," He Whispered, "and You Were The Sweetest Of All.

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

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.

Does A Population Have Informed Consent When That Population Is Not Taught The Inner Workings Of Its Monetary System, And Then Is Drawn, All Unknowing, Into Economic Adventures?

The Child Who Refuses To Travel In The Father's Harness, This Is The Symbol Of Man's Most Unique Capability. "i Do Not Have To Be What My Father Was. I Do Not Have To Obey My Father's Rules Or Even Believe Everything He Believed. It Is My Strength As A Human That I Can Make My Own Choices Of What To Believe And What Not To Believe, Of What To Be And What Not To Be.

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 Or She Is In. That Person Must Reflect What Is Projected Upon Him Or Her.

To Stand Alone Against All Adversity Is The Most Sacred Moment Of Existence.

The Convoluted Wording Of Legalisms Grew Up Around The Necessity To Hide From Ourselves The Violence We Intend Toward Each Other. Between Depriving A Man Of One Hour From His Life And Depriving Him Of His Life There Exists Only A Difference Of Degree. You Have Done Violence To Him, Consumed His Energy.

But It's Well Known That Repression Makes A Religion Flourish.

Beaurocracy Destroys Initiative.

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

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

I Don't Worry About Inspiration, Or Anything Like That. It's A Matter Of Just Sitting Down And Working.

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

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

Polish Comes From The Cities; Wisdom From The Desert.

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

To Determine If You're Human. Be Silent.

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.

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

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

A Leader, You See, Is One Of The Things That Distinguishes A Mob From A People.

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.

Love Is Not A Mood, But A Dynamic Way Of Being.

Beware! The Mind Of The Believer Stagnates. It Fails To Grow Outward Into An Unlimited, Infinite Universe.

Absolute Power Does Not Corrupt Absolutely, Absolute Power Attracts The Corruptible.

Revenge Is For Children And The Emotionally Retarded.

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

Thou Shalt Not Make A Machine In The Likeness Of A Human Mind.

One Of The Best Things To Come Out Of The Home Computer Revolution Could Be The General And Widespread Understanding Of How Severely Limited Logic Really Is.

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

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.

... Motivating People, Forcing Them To Your Will, Gives You A Cynical Attitude Toward Humanity. It Degrades Everything It Touches.

When I Need To Identify Rebels, I Look For Men With Principles

All Governments Suffer A Recurring Problem: Power Attracts Pathological Personalities. It Is Not That Power Corrupts But That It Is Magnetic To The Corruptible.

Membership In A Conspiracy, As In An Army, Frees People From The Sense Of Personal Responsibility.

What You Cannot Control, You Must Accept.

Seek Freedom And Become Captive Of Your Desires. Seek Discipline And Find Your Liberty.

A Popular Man Arouses The Jealousy Of The Powerful.

Every Civilization Must Contend With An Unconscious Force Which Can Block, Betray, Or Countermand Almost Any Conscious Intention Of The Collectivity.

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.

Words Are Such Gross Machinery, So Primitive And Ambiguous.

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

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.

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

When I Was Writing Dune There Was No Room In My Mind For Concerns About The Book's Success Or Failure. I Was Concerned Only With The Writing. Six Years Of Research Had Preceded The Day I Sat Down To Put The Story Together, And The Interweaving Of The Many Plot Layers I Had Planned Required A Degree Of Concentration I Had Never Before Experienced.

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

To Know The Future Absolutely It To Be Trapped Into That Future Absolutely. It Collapses Time. Present Becomes Future.

If You Rely Only On Your Eyes, Your Other Senses Weaken.

Intelligence Takes Chances With Limited Data In An Arena Where Mistakes Are Not Only Possible But Also Necessary.

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.

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.

When You Think You Know Something: That Is A Most Perfect Barrier Against Learning.

You Think You Know

The Universe Does Not Work By Our Rules

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.

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

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

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

Silence Is Often The Best Thing To Say.

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