"Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.

Create or arouse such unbridled forces and you built carnal fantasies of enormous complexity. You could lead whole populations around by their desires, by their fantasy projections.
~ Frank Herbert ~












More Frank Herbert quotes
"Don't give over all of your critical faculties to people in power, no matter how admirable those people may appear to be. Beneath the hero's facade yo...
"The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.
"Dune was a world of paradox now—a world under siege, yet the center of power. To come under siege, he decided, was the inevitable fate of power.
"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities.
"Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect any who seek it.
"Democracy is susceptible to being led astray by having scapegoats paraded in front of the electorate. Get the rich, the greedy, the criminals, the stu...
"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the co...
"When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong - faster and fa...
"Schools were started to train human talents... The Guild... emphasizes almost pure mathematics. Bene Gesserit performs... politics. The original Bene ...
"One must always keep the tools of statecraft sharp and ready. Power and fear – sharp and ready.
"Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experie...
"On Caladan, we ruled with sea and air power," the Duke said. "Here, we must scrabble for desert power. This is your inheritance, Paul.
"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...
"Constitutions become the ultimate tyranny," Paul said. "They’re organized power on such a scale as to be overwhelming. The constitution is social powe...