Frank Herbert Quotes Page 2
Best 180 Quotes by Frank Herbert – Page 2 of 6
Chapterhouse: Dune Quotes
“The unclouded eye was better, no matter what it saw.”
“We tend to become like the worst in those we oppose.”
“What does a mirror look at?”
“When you think to take determination of your fate into your own hands, that is the moment you can be crushed. Be cautious.”
Children of Dune Quotes
“Ambitions tend to remain undisturbed by realities.”
“Atrocity is recognized as such by victim and perpetrator 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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Experts and specialists lead you quickly into chaos. They are a source of useless nit-picking, the ferocious quibble over a comma.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“It is said that the only fear we cannot correct is the fear of our own mistakes.”
“Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.”
“Most deadly errors arise from obsolete assumptions.”
“Often there's no need to tear off an arm to remove a splinter.”
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“How could I be sleeping with this particular man? Surely only true love could justify my lack of taste.”
“One learns from books and example only that certain things can be done. Actual learning requires that you do those things.”
“One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp too strongly is to be taken over by power, and thus to become its victim.”
“Some actions have an end but no beginning; some begin but do not end. It all depends upon where the observer is standing.”
“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.”
“The gift of words is the gift of deception and illusion.”
“The joy of living, its beauty, is all bound up in the fact that life can surprise you.”
“The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth.”
“To know a thing well, know its limits; Only when pushed beyond its tolerance will its true nature be seen.”
“To stay awake all night adds a day to your life.”
“Too much knowledge never makes for simple decisions.”
“We never get far from wealth and all of its masks when we deal with power.”
“When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.”
Dune Quotes
“A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.”
“A killer with the manners of a rabbit - this is the most dangerous kind.”
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“I want to write about people I love, and put them into a fictional world spun out of my own mind, not the world we actually have, because the world we actually have does not meet my standards.
Okay, so I should revise my standards; I'm out of step. I should yield to reality. I have never yielded to reality. That's what SF is all about. If you wish to yield to reality, go read Philip Roth; read the New York literary establishment mainstream bestselling writers…
This is why I love SF. I love to read it; I love to write it. The SF writer sees not just possibilities but wild possibilities. It's not just 'What if' – it's 'My God; what if' – in frenzy and hysteria. The Martians are always coming.”
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Frank Herbert Sources
- All quotes by Frank Herbert (180 quotes)
- Chapterhouse: Dune (13 quotes)
- Children of Dune (24 quotes)
- Dune (68 quotes)
- Dune Genesis (2 quotes)
- Dune Messiah (17 quotes)
- God Emperor of Dune (22 quotes)
- Heretics of Dune (5 quotes)
- Man's Future in Space (1 quote)
- New World or No World (2 quotes)
- Science Fiction and a World in Crisis (1 quote)
- The Godmakers (1 quote)
- The Green Brain (1 quote)
- Whipping Star (1 quote)
- Without Me, You're Nothing (1 quote)
- Other quotes by Frank Herbert (21 quotes)