Frank Herbert Quotes

One moment of incompetence can be fatal.

Clinging to any form of conservatism can be dangerous. Become too conservative and you are unprepare...

All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not tha...

Democracy is susceptible to being led astray by having scapegoats paraded in front of the electorate...

A killer with the manners of a rabbit - this is the most dangerous kind.

How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him.

I am a leg of the death tripod that will destroy our foes.

Black is a blind remembering, she thought. You listen for pack sounds, for the cries of those who hu...

Respect for the truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. Something cannot emerge from ...

He who controls the spice controls the universe.

Education is no substitute for intelligence. That elusive quality is defined only in part by puzzle-...

Do actions agree with words? There's your measure of reliability. Never confine yourself to the word...

Face your fears or they will climb over your back.

Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect any who seek it.

Create or arouse such unbridled forces and you built carnal fantasies of enormous complexity. You co...

Since every individual is accountable ultimately to the self, the formation of that self demands our...

Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.

Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.

Humans are almost always lonely.

Life produces a different taste each time you take it.

He learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was t...

Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part on the myth-making ...

Delay is as dangerous as the wrong answer.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I...

When a Truthsayer's gifted by the drug, she can look many places in her memory - in her body's memor...

My son will wear the title well, the Duke thought, and realized with a sudden chill that this was an...

Mood’s a thing for cattle or for making love. You fight when the necessity arises, no matter your mo...

No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero

Highly organized research is guaranteed to produce nothing new.

Every civilization depends on the quality of the individuals it produces. If you over-organize human...

Education is no substitute for intelligence.

They compose poems to their knives.

There are proven ways to win the loyalty of tough, strong, ferocious men: play on the certain knowle...

In 1054, the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope excommunicated each other. That was the end of...

We accept too damned many things on the explanations of people who could have good reasons for lying...

Does a population have informed consent when that population is not taught the inner workings of its...

In their passion for sameness, the tyrants made themselves more and more powerful. All others grew c...

We are plagued by a corrupt polity which promotes unlawful and/or immoral behaviour. Public interest...

Governments always commit their entire populations when the demands grow heavy enough. By their pass...

Fannie Mae had aroused his anger, then reduced his anger to verbal breast-beating, and finally to si...

We have a disturbed relationship with our past which religion cannot explain. We are primitive in un...

People always want something more than immediate joy or that deeper sense called happiness. This is ...

At the quantum level our universe can be seen as an indeterminate place, predictable in a statistica...

Liberty and Freedom are complex concepts. They go back to religious ideas of Free Will and are relat...

The great mass of humankind possesses an unmistakable unit-identity. It can be one thing. It can act...

Most discipline is hidden discipline, designed not to liberate but to limit. Do not ask Why? Be caut...

Life cannot find reasons to sustain it, cannot be a source of decent mutual regard, unless each of u...

The people who demand that the oracle predict for them really want to know next year’s price on whal...

Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especia...

Technology tends toward avoidance of risks by investors. Uncertainty is ruled out if possible. Peopl...

Each of us comes into being knowing who he is and what he is supposed to do.' ... 'Small children kn...

I never thought it would be easy to serve God," she said. "I just didn't think it would be this hard...

It is difficult to live in the present, pointless to live in the future and impossible to live in th...

It has occurred to me more than once that holy boredom is good and sufficient reason for the inventi...

This wise man observed that wealth is a tool of freedom. But the pursuit of wealth is the way to sla...

I point out to you, Marcus Claire Luyseyal, a lesson from past over-machined societies which you app...

Chance is the nature of our universe. […] madness represents a chaotic reservoir of surprises. Some ...

If we deny the need for thought, Moneo, as some do, we lose the powers of reflection; we cannot defi...

Small souls who seek power over others first destroy the faith those others might have in themselves...

Caution is the path to mediocrity. Gliding, passionless mediocrity is all that most people think the...

Most civilisation is based on cowardice. It's so easy to civilize by teaching cowardice. You water d...

Police are inevitably corrupted. ... Police always observe that criminals prosper. It takes a pretty...

Only fools prefer the past!

Military foolishness is ultimately suicidal. They believe that by risking death they pay the price o...

Do you know what guerrillas often say? They claim that their rebellions are invulnerable to economic...

On Caladan, we ruled with sea and air power," the Duke said. "Here, we must scrabble for desert powe...

My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. 'Some...

We will never forgive and we will never forget.

It doesn't follow that the riots mean permanent hostility toward him.

He uses the nice old words so rich in tradition to be sure I know he means it.

Don't sit with your back to any doors.

You have a nicety of awareness of the difference between a blade's edge and its tip.

A single obscure decision of prophecy, perhaps the choice of one word over another, could change the...

Religion must remain an outlet for people who say to themselves, 'I am not the kind of person I want...

I warn you that ignorance thrives on hysteria.

For what do you hunger, Lord?” Moneo ventured.“For a humankind which can make truly long-term decisi...

My Uncle Malky always said the Lord Leto never responded to prayer. He said the Lord Leto looked on ...

Money said, "I warn you that ignorance thrives on hysteria.

Dangers lurk in all systems. Systems incorporate the unexamined beliefs of their creators. Adopt a s...

The truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to express it.

We had something few experience. We were joined in our strengths rather than in our weaknesses.

No matter how much we ask after the truth, self-awareness is often unpleasant. We do not feel kindly...

Some say," Scytale said, "that people cling to Imperial leadership because space is infinite. They f...

Once . . . long ago, he’d thought of himself as an inventor of government. But the invention had fal...

You do not beg the sun for mercy.-Maud'dib's Travail from The Stilgar Commentary

It is far better to win a battle through skilled leadership and wise decisions than violence and blo...

All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities.

Government cannot be religious and self-assertive at the same time. Religious experience needs a spo...

And loyalty is a valued commodity. It can be sold . . . not bought, but sold.

Then are there no rules at all, Lord?” Moneo's voice conveyed a faint hint of hysteria.Leto smiled t...

Dune was a world of paradox now—a world under siege, yet the center of power. To come under siege, h...

I don't speak, I operate a machine called language. It creaks and groans, but is mine own.

They are not mad. They're trained to believe, not to know. Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge...

What the eyes had seen could not be erased.

motivating people, forcing them to your will, gives you a cynical attitude toward humanity. It degra...

Reason is the first victim of strong emotion," Scytale murmured.

What's law? Control? Law filters chaos and what drips through? Serenity? Law -- our highest ideal an...

I have said: "Blow out the lamp! Day is here!" And you keep saying: "Give me a lamp so I can find th...

The flesh surrenders itself. Eternity takes back its own. Our bodies stirred these waters briefly, d...

There exists a limit to the force even the most powerful may apply without destroying themselves. Ju...

Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have becom...