“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.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“The gift of words is the gift of deception and illusion.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“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.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“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.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“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.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“One learns from books and example only that certain things can be done. Actual learning requires that you do those things.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“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”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“Most deadly errors arise from obsolete assumptions.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“If you focus your awareness only upon your own rightness, then you invite the forces of opposition to overwhelm you.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgement of your existence.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“When I am Weaker Thn 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.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“If all those around you believe some particular thing, you will soon be tempted to share in that belief.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“Often I must Speak otherwise than I Think. This is Called Diplomacy.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp too strongly is to be taken over by power, and thus to become its victim.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“Every judgment teeters on the brink of error,” Leto explained. “To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“Abandon certainty! That's life's deepest command. That's what life's all about. We're a probe into the unknown, into the uncertain. Why can't you hear Muad'Dib? If certainty is knowing absolutely an absolute future, then that's only death disguised! Such a future becomes now!”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“There are illusions of popular history which a 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 triumphs; a good deed is its own reward; 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.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“To exist is to stand out, away from the background," The Preacher said. "You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“We’ve lost something vital, I tell you. When we lost it, we lost the ability to make good decisions. We fall upon decisions these days the way we fall upon an enemy—or wait and wait, which is a form of giving up, and we allow the decisions of others to move us. Have we forgotten that we were the ones who set this current flowing?”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“Ambitions tend to Remain undisturbed by Realities.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“If you put away those who report accurately, you’ll keep only those who know what you want to hear. I can think of nothing more poisonous than to rot in the stink of your own reflections.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“If I always behave with propriety, no matter what it costs me to suppress my own desires, then that is the measure of me. Such is the essence of self-control.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“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.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“What you of the CHOAM directorate seem unable to understand is that you seldom find real loyalties in commerce ... Men must want to do things of their own innermost drives. People, not commercial organisations or chains of command, are what make great civilizations work, every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces. If you overorganize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatness — they cannot work and their civilization collapses.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“I cannot lie to you any more than I could lie to myself,” Paul said. “I know this. Every man should have such an auditor.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“We know the major conditions wherein this large populace may turn upon its keepers -
One: When they find a leader. This is the most volatile threat to the powerful; they must retain control of leaders.
Two: When the populace recognises its chains. Keep the populace blind and unquestioning.
Three: When the populace perceives a hope of escape from bondage. They must never even believe that escape is possible!”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“But one learns from books and reels only that certain things can be done. Actual learning requires that you do those things.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
“Knowing was a barrier which prevented learning.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from Children of Dune
Frank Herbert
Born place: in Tacoma, Washington, The United States
Born date October 8, 1920
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“And yet can it be that I was fit for nothing, that for me there was, as it were, no work on earth to do?”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Rudin
“In the very midst of this panic came the news that the steamer Central America, formerly the George Law, with six hundred passengers and about sixteen hundred thousand dollars of treasure, coming from Aspinwall, had foundered at sea, off the coast of Georgia, and that about sixty of the passengers had been providentially picked up by a Swedish bark, and brought into Savannah. The absolute loss of this treasure went to swell the confusion and panic of the day. A few days after, I was standing in the vestibule of the Metropolitan Hotel, and heard the captain of the Swedish bark tell his singular story of the rescue of these passengers. He was a short, sailor-like-looking man, with a strong German or Swedish accent. He said that he was sailing from some port in Honduras for Sweden, running down the Gulf Stream off Savannah. The weather had been heavy for some days, and, about nightfall, as he paced his deck, he observed a man-of-war hawk circle about his vessel, gradually lowering, until the bird was as it were aiming at him. He jerked out a belaying pin, struck at the bird, missed it, when the hawk again rose high in the air, and a second time began to descend, contract his circle, and make at him again. The second time he hit the bird, and struck it to the deck. . . . This strange fact made him uneasy, and he thought it betokened danger; he went to the binnacle, saw the course he was steering, and without any particular reason he ordered the steersman to alter the course one point to the east. After this it became quite dark, and he continued to promenade the deck, and had settled into a drowsy state, when as in a dream he thought he heard voices all round his ship. Waking up, he ran to the side of the ship, saw something struggling in the water, and heard clearly cries for help. Instantly heaving his ship to, and lowering all his boats, he managed to pick up sixty or more persons who were floating about on skylights, doors, spare, and whatever fragments remained of the Central America. Had he not changed the course of his vessel by reason of the mysterious conduct of that man-of-war hawk, not a soul would probably have survived the night.”
― William T. Sherman, quote from Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman
“There will always be dark characters, but her life is good; it is as she wishes it to be.”
― John O'Brien, quote from Leaving Las Vegas
“God won’t protect you from what He can perfect you through.”
― Kevin Alan Milne, quote from The One Good Thing
“Yes.” She sighed again, with even more drama, not that Gregory would have imagined it possible. “It is
all so romantic,” she added. “The bride, the groom…”
“Both are considered standard in the ceremony, I understand.”
His mother shot him a peevish look. “How could I have raised a son who is so unromantic?”
Gregory decided there could not possibly be an answer to that.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from On the Way to the Wedding
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