Background Image

...

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.

-Frank Herbert

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

We Sift Reality Through

Frank Herbert

...

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.

Views: 8

Topic

More From Frank Herbert

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

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

Think You Of The Fact That A Deaf Person Cannot Hear. Then, What Deafness May We Not All Possess? What Senses Do We Lack That We Cannot See And Cannot Hear Another World All Around Us?

If You Live In Bad Faith, Lies Will Appear To You Like The Truth.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Atrocity Never Balances Or Rectifies The Past. Atrocity Merely Arms The Future For More Atrocity.

Always Prepare Secondary Ways Of Dealing With Problems.

Problem Solving

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

It's Easier To Be Terrified By An Enemy You Admire.

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!"

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

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

Face Your Fears Or They Will Climb Over Your Back.

Face Your Fears

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Educational Bureaucracies Dull A Child's Questing Sensitivity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Humans Are Almost Always Lonely.

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

The Real Universe Is Always One Step Beyond Logic.

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.

Law Is The Ultimate Science.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Most Deadly Errors Arise From Obsolete Assumptions.

I Hear The Wind Blowing Across The Desert And I See The Moons Of A Winter Night Rising Like Great Ships In The Void. To Them I Make My Vow: I Will Be Resolute And Make An Art Of Government; I Will Balance My Inherited Past And Become A Perfect Storehouse Of My Relic Memories. And I Will Be Known For Kindliness More Than For Knowledge. My Face Will Shine Down The Corridors Of Time For As Long As Humans Exist.

To Come Under Siege Was The Inevitable Fate Of Power.

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.

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.

Guilt Starts As A Feeling Of Failure.

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.

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

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

Whether A Thought Is Spoken Or Not It Is A Real Thing And Has Powers Of Reality.

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

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

We 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.

Ambitions Tend To Remain Undisturbed By Realities.

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

Highly Organized Research Is Guaranteed To Produce Nothing New.

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

Belief Can Be Manipulated. Only Knowledge Is Dangerous.

Knowledge Is Dangerous

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.

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

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

Education Is No Substitute For Intelligence. That Elusive Quality Is Defined Only In Part By Puzzle-solving Ability. It Is In The Creation Of New Puzzles Reflecting What Your Senses Report That You Round Out The Definitions.

Power Attracts The Corruptible. Suspect Any Who Seek It.

Power And Corruption

Infinity? It Attracts Us Like A Floodlight In The Night.

The Clear And Safe Path Leads Evermore Into Stagnation

Those Who Would Repeat The Past Must Control The Teaching Of History.

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.

Religion Must Remain An Outlet For People Who Say To Themselves, "i Am Not The Kind Of Person I Want To Be." It Must Never Sink Into An Assemblage Of The Self-satisfied.

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

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.

The Only Past Which Endures Lies Wordlessly Within You.

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

Money To A Writer Is Time To Write.

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.

What You Cannot Control, You Must Accept.

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

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

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.

The Highest Function Of Ecology Is The Understanding Of Consequences.

Kindness Is The Beginning Of Cruelty.

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.

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.

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

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

War Is The Most Readily Available Form Of Chaos.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!"

I Must Not Fear. Fear Is The Mind-killer. Fear Is The Little-death That Brings Total Obliteration. I Will Face My Fear. I Will Permit It To Pass Over Me And Through Me. And When It Has Gone Past I Will Turn The Inner Eye To See Its Path. Where The Fear Has Gone There Will Be Nothing. Only I Will Remain.

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

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.

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

We Are Generalists. You Can't Draw Neat Lines Around Planet-wide Problems. Planetology Is A Cut-and-fit Science.

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

Something Cannot Emerge From Nothing.

The Undeserving Maintain Power By Promoting Hysteria.

The Dice Cannot Read Their Own Spots.

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.

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.

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.

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

What Are You, Child, That You Need Time To Learn About Yourself?

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.

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

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.

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

When You Think To Take Determination Of Your Fate Into Your Own Hands, That Is The Moment You Can Be Crushed. Be Cautious.

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.

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

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

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

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

There Is No Real Ending. It’s Just The Place Where You Stop The Story.

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

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

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

Love Is A Very Ancient Force, Which Served Its Purpose In Its Day But No Longer Is Essential For The Survival Of The Species.

Caution Is The Path To Mediocrity.

Fear Is The Mind-killer.

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

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

The Truth Always Carries The Ambiguity Of The Words Used To Express It.

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

What Does A Mirror Look At?

The Surest Way To Keep A Secret Is To Make People Believe They Already Know The Answer.

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.

Any Road Followed Precisely To Its End Leads Precisely Nowhere.

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

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.

The Sleeper Must Awaken.

Give Me A Lamp So I Can Find The Day.

The Singular Multiplicity Of This Universe Draws My Deepest Attention. It Is A Thing Of Ultimate Beauty. Leto Ii

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.

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.

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.

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

Question: Who Governs The Governors? Answer: Entropy

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

You Think You Know

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

Life Is A Mask Through Which The Universe Expresses Itself.

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

Survival Is The Ability To Swim In Strange Water.

It Is A Wise Man That Does Know The Contented Man Is Never Poor, Whilst The Discontented Man Is Never Rich.

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

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.

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.

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

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

A Human Being Can Stand Any Amount Of Pain.

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

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

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

Grief Is The Price Of Victory.

Who Are The Rabble And Who Are The Ruled?

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

Power Tends To Isolate Those Who Hold Too Much Of It. Eventually, They Lose Touch With Reality ... And Fall.

Absolute Prediction Is Completion . . . Is Death!

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

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

Laws To Suppress Tend To Strengthen What They Would Prohibit.

Drug Prohibition

Enemies Make You Stronger, Allies Make You Weaker.

No Matter How Exotic Human Civilization Becomes, No Matter The Developments Of Life And Society Nor The Complexity Of The Machine/human Interface, There Always Come Interludes Of Lonely Power When The Course Of Humankind, The Very Future Of Humankind, Depends Upon The Relatively Simple Actions Of Single Individual.

I Now Believe That Evolution, Or Deevolution, Never Ends Short Of Death, That No Society Has Ever Achieved An Absolute Pinnacle, That All Humans Are Not Created Equal. In Fact, I Believe Attempts To Create Some Abstract Equalization Create A Morass Of Injustices That Rebound On The Equalizers. Equal Justice And Equal Opportunity Are Ideals We Should Seek, But We Should Recognize That Humans Administer The Ideals And That Humans Do Not Have Equal Ability.

The Hearts Of All Men Dwell In The Same Wilderness.

The Vision Of Time Is Broad, But When You Pass Through It, Time Becomes A Narrow Door.

Prophets Have A Way Of Dying By Violence.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Trending Author

Francine Pascal

Cassandra Clare

Category