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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!"

-Frank Herbert

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Unfortunately Most Criticism Is

Frank Herbert

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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!"

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Fear Is The Mind-killer.

Men Always Fear Things Which Move By Themselves.

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

Belief Can Be Manipulated. Only Knowledge Is Dangerous.

Knowledge Is Dangerous

The Proximity Of A Desirable Thing Tempts One To Overindulgence. On That Path Lies Danger.

That Path Leads Ever Down Into Stagnation.

The Universe Does Not Work By Our Rules

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

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

The Mind Commands The Body And It Obeys. The Mind Orders Itself And Meets Resistance.

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

There's Hope Left In These Dusty Chords. There's A Song Left In Our Rusty Hearts. We Are Torn And Frayed But Love Remains.

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

Ambitions Tend To Remain Undisturbed By Realities.

If You Want Immortality, Then Deny Form. Whatever Has Form Has Mortality. Beyond Form Is The Formless, The Immortal.

Give As Few Orders As Possible," His Father Had Told Him Once Long Ago. "once You've Given Orders On A Subject, You Must Always Give Orders On That Subject.

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

Humans Are Almost Always Lonely.

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

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

The Highest Function Of Ecology Is The Understanding Of Consequences.

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

There Has Never Been A Truly Selfless Rebel, Just Hypocrites—conscious Hypocrites Or Unconscious Hypocrites, It’s All The Same.

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

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

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.

Madness In Method, That's Genius

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

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

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

Journalism Is The Entertainment Business.

Entertainment Business

The Real Universe Is Always One Step Beyond Logic.

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

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

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?

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

The People I Distrust Most Are Those Who Want To Improve Our Lives But Have Only One Course Of Action In Mind.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Logic Is Good For Playing Chess But Is Often Too Slow For The Needs Of Survival.

You Can't Build Politics On Love. People Aren't Concerned With Love; It's Too Disordered. They Prefer Despotism. Too Much Freedom Breeds Chaos.

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

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

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.

His Voice Was Low, Charged With Unspeakable Adjectives.

What Is The Son But An Extension Of The Father?

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

Memory Never Recaptures Reality. Memory Reconstructs. All Reconstructions Change The Original, Becoming External Frames Of Reference That Inevitably Fall Short.

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

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

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.

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 Do You Despise? By This Are You Truly Known.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Arrakis Teaches The Attitude Of The Knife - Chopping Off What's Incomplete And Saying: "now It's Complete Because It's Ended Here."

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.

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

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

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

What Has Mood To Do With It? You Fight When The Necessity Arises—no Matter The Mood! Mood's A Thing For Cattle Or Making Love Or Playing The Baliset. It's Not For Fighting.

Remember: Bureaucracy Elevates Conformity ... Make That Elevates 'fatal Stupidity' To The Status Of Religion.

Give Me A Lamp So I Can Find The Day.

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

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

What You Cannot Control, You Must Accept.

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

Too Much Knowledge Never Makes For Simple Decisions.

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

Prophets Have A Way Of Dying By Violence.

We Faced It And Did Not Resist. The Storm Passed Through Us And Around Us. It's Gone, But We Remain.

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

I Am Like A Person Whose Hands Were Kept Numb, Without Sensation From The First Moment Of Awareness - Until One Day The Ability To Feel Is Forced Into Them. And I Say "look! I Have No Hands!" But The People All Around Me Say: "what Are Hands?

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

Governments Can Be Useful To The Governed Only So Long As Inherent Tendencies Toward Tyranny Are Restrained.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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

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.

I Am Not The River I Am The Net.

Machine Makers Always Run The Risk Of Becoming Totally Machine.

Jessica Stopped Beside Him, Said: 'what Delicious Abandon In The Sleep Of A Child.' He Spoke Mechanically: 'if Only Adults Could Relax Like That.' 'yes.' 'where Do We Lose It?' He Murmured. 'we Do, Indeed, Lose Something,' She Said.

Science Fiction, Because It Ventures Into No Man's Lands, Tends To Meet Some Of The Requirements Posed By Jung In His Explorations Of Archetypes, Myth Structures And Self-understanding. It May Be That The Primary Attraction Of Science Fiction Is That It Helps Us Understand What It Means To Be Human.

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 Dice Cannot Read Their Own Spots.

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

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.

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

What Is Important For A Leader Is That Which Makes Him A Leader. It Is The Needs Of His People.

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.

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

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.

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.

You See, Gentlemen, They Have Something To Die For. They've Discovered They're A People. They're Awakening.

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

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.

How Often It Is That The Angry Man Rages Denial Of What His Inner Self Is Telling Him.

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

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

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

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

A Beginning Is The Time For Taking The Most Delicate Care That The Balances Are Correct.

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

Each Life Creates Endless Ripples.

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

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.

Money To A Writer Is Time To Write.

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

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.

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.

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

Law Is The Ultimate Science.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Emotions Are The Curse Of Logic.

There's A Lesson In Every Temptation.

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

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

The Power To Destroy A Thing Is The Absolute Control Over It.

When Religion And Politics Ride In The Same Cart, The Whirlwind Follows.

Religion And Politics

History Is A Constant Race Between Invention And Catastrophe.

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

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

Truth Suffers From Too Much Analysis.

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

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

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.

To Come Under Siege Was The Inevitable Fate Of Power.

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

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.

Educational Bureaucracies Dull A Child's Questing Sensitivity.

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

The Convoluted Wording Of Legalisms Grew Up Around The Necessity To Hide From Ourselves The Violence We Do To Each Other.

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.

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

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

Polish Comes From The Cities; Wisdom From The Desert.

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

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.

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

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.

Governments, If They Endure, Always Tend Increasingly Toward Aristocratic Forms. No Government In History Has Been Known To Evade This Pattern. And As The Aristocracy Develops, Government Tends More And More To Act Exclusively In The Interests Of The Ruling Class -- Whether That Class Be Hereditary Royalty, Oligarchs Of Financial Empires, Or Entrenched Bureaucracy.

To Stay Awake All Night Adds A Day To Your Life.

Justice? Who Asks For Justice? We Make Our Own Justice ... Let Us Not Rail About Justice As Long As We Have Arms And The Freedom To Use Them.

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

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.

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

I'm The Well-trained Fruit Tree. Full Of Well-trained Feelings And Abilities And All Of Them Grafted Onto Me

Most Deadly Errors Arise From Obsolete Assumptions.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

A Ruler Must Learn To Persuade And Not To Compel.

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

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.

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

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

I Cry For Those Not Yet Dead.

To Determine If You're Human. Be Silent.

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.

Education Is No Substitute For Intelligence.

Hope Clouds Observation.

The Undeserving Maintain Power By Promoting Hysteria.

We Bene Gesserit Sift People To Find The Humans.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

The Difference Between Sentiment And Being Sentimental Is The Following: Sentiment Is When A Driver Swerves Out Of The Way To Avoid Hitting A Rabbit On The Road. Being Sentimental Is When The Same Driver, When Swerving Away From The Rabbit, Hits A Pedestrian.

Enemies Strengthn You. Allies Weaken 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?

Words Are Such Gross Machinery, So Primitive And Ambiguous.

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