Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah
18 quotes
"Some say," Scytale said, "that people cling to Imperial leadership because space is infinite. They feel lonely without a unifying symbol. For a lonely people, the Emperor is a definite place. They can turn toward him and say: 'See, there He is. He makes us one.' Perhaps religion serves the same purpose, m'Lord."
"Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual. -Words of Muad'dib by Princess Irulan."
"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."
"Deceit is a tool of statecraft," Irulan agreed."There are limits to power, as those who put their hopes in a constitution always discover," Paul said."
"CHOAM is business and business follows profits."
"Every man carries his own past with him," Hayt said."
"I don't speak, I operate a machine called language. It creaks and groans, but is mine own."
"Once . . . long ago, he’d thought of himself as an inventor of government. But the invention had fallen into old patterns. It was like some hideous contrivance with plastic memory. Shape it any way you wanted, but relax for a moment, and it snapped into the ancient forms. Forces at work beyond his reach in human breasts eluded and defied him."
"You do not beg the sun for mercy.-Maud'dib's Travail from The Stilgar Commentary"
"And loyalty is a valued commodity. It can be sold . . . not bought, but sold."
"Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government?"
"Reason is the first victim of strong emotion," Scytale murmured."
"Cynicism! That, no doubt is a greater crime than heresy."
"What's law? Control? Law filters chaos and what drips through? Serenity? Law -- our highest ideal and our basest nature. Don't look too closely at the law. Do, and you'll find the rationalized interpretations, the legal casuistry, the precedents of convenience. You'll find the serenity, which is just another word for death."
"What the eyes had seen could not be erased."
"Wild Fremen said it well: "Four things cannot be hidden -- love, smoke, a pillar of fire and a man striding across the open bled."
"One moment of incompetence can be fatal."
"We will not run," Paul said. "We'll move with dignity. We'll do what must be done."