Frank Herbert, Dune
62 quotes
"Whether a thought is spoken or not it is a real thing and it has power," Tuek said. "You might find the line between life and death among the Fremen to be too sharp and quick."
"My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. 'Something cannot emerge from nothing,' he said. This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable 'the truth' can be."
"But it's well known that repression makes a religion flourish."
"The Fremen have a simple, practical religion,” he said.“Nothing about religion is simple."
"Fear is the mind-killer."
"The man without emotions is the one to fear."
"You have a nicety of awareness of the difference between a blade's edge and its tip."
"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 the basic trust that he could learn. It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult."
"Move slowly and the day of your revenge will come," Tuek said. "Speed is a device of Shaitan. Cool your sorrow–we’ve the diversions for it; three things there are that ease the heart–water, green grass, and the beauty of woman."
"Give as few orders as possible," his father had told him once long ago. "Once you've given orders on a subject, you must always give orders on that subject."
"Any man who retreats into a cave which has only one opening deserves to die."
"I must rule with eye and claw — as the hawk among lesser birds. - Duke Leto Atreides"
"Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part on the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him."
"Delay is as dangerous as the wrong answer."
"It doesn't follow that the riots mean permanent hostility toward him."
"My son will wear the title well, the Duke thought, and realized with a sudden chill that this was another death thought."
"He uses the nice old words so rich in tradition to be sure I know he means it."
"There are proven ways to win the loyalty of tough, strong, ferocious men: play on the certain knowledge of their superiority, the mystique of secret covenant, the esprit of shared suffering."
"Piter: Ah-ah, Baron! Is it not regrettable you were unable to devise this delicious scheme by yourself?Baron: Someday I will have you strangled, Piter.Piter: Of a certainty, Baron. Enfin! But a kind act is never lost, eh?Baron: Have you been chewing verite or semuta, Piter?"
"On Caladan, we ruled with sea and air power," the Duke said. "Here, we must scrabble for desert power. This is your inheritance, Paul."
"One must always keep the tools of statecraft sharp and ready. Power and fear – sharp and ready."
"A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel... he must lay the best coffee hearth to attract the finest men... a good ruler has to learn his world's language... it's different for every world... the language of the rocks and growing things... the language you don't hear just with your ears... the Mystery of Life... not a problem to solve, but a reality to experience... Understanding must move with the flow of the process."
"A single obscure decision of prophecy, perhaps the choice of one word over another, could change the entire aspect of the future. He tells us "The vision of time is broad, but when you pass through it, time becomes a narrow door."
"He felt the inability to grieve as a terrible flaw."