Frank Herbert Quotes

Words themselves were the ultimate barrier to revelation.

The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth.

Something cannot emerge from nothing.

Polish comes from the cities; wisdom from the desert.

Historians exercise great power and some of them know it. They recreate the past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the future as well.

Each life creates endless ripples.

Governments do not know what they cannot do until after they cease to be governments. Each government carries the seeds of its own destruction.

If you want immortality, then deny form. Whatever has form has mortality. Beyond form is the formless, the immortal.

Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you someone who's covering mistakes. Real boats rock.

Logic is good for playing chess but is often too slow for the needs of survival.

Nature does not make mistakes. Right and wrong are human categories.

If enough of us believe, a new thing can be made to exist. Belief structure creates a filter through which chaos is sifted into order.

To come under siege was the inevitable fate of power.

Answers are a perilous grip on the universe. They can appear sensible yet explain nothing.

Hope clouds observation.

Prisons are needed only to provide the illusion that courts and police are effective. They're a kind of job insurance.

The truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to express it.

Proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you this is something you have always known.

One of the best things to come out of the home computer revolution could be the general and widespread understanding of how severely limited logic really is.

A requirement of creativity is that it contributes to change. Creativity keeps the creator alive.

Try to hold on to youth and it mocks you while it sprints away.

If all those around you believe some particular thing, you will soon be tempted to share in that belief.

Law always chooses sides on the basis of enforcement power. Morality and legal niceties have little to do with it when the real question is: Who has the clout?

A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.

It must certainly be more dangerous to live in ignorance than to live with knowledge.

Enemies make you stronger, allies make you weaker.

Ambitions tend to remain undisturbed by realities.

Remember: Bureaucracy elevates conformity ... Make that elevates 'fatal stupidity' to the status of religion.

The dice cannot read their own spots.

The best prophets lead you up to the curtain and let you peer through for yourself.

Once human beings realize something can be done, they're not satisfied until they've done it.

There is no escape - we pay for the violence of our ancestors.

War is behavior with roots in the single cell of the primeval seas. Eat whatever you touch or it will eat you.

When we try to conceal our innermost drives, the entire being screams betrayal.

I give you the chameleon, whose ability to blend itself into the background tells you all you need to know about the roots of ecology and the foundations of a personal identity

The stakes in conflict do not change. Battle determines who will control the wealth or its equivalent.

Killing with the point lacks artistry, but don't let that hold your hand when the opening presents itself.

Every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces.

We are generalists. You can't draw neat lines around planet-wide problems. Planetology is a cut-and-fit science.

It's easier to be terrified by an enemy you admire.

The ultimate test ... to see the good in evil and the evil in good.

The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future.

Thinking you know something is a sure way to blind yourself.

The writing of history is largely a process of diversion. Most historical accounts distract attention from the secret influences behind great events.

The most persistent principles in the universe are accident and error.

You see, gentlemen, they have something to die for. They've discovered they're a people. They're awakening.

Give me the judgment of balanced minds in preference to laws every time. Codes and manuals create patterned behavior. All patterned behavior tends to go unquestioned, gathering destructive momentum.

A leader is one of the things that distinguishes a mob from a people. He maintains the level of individuals. Too few individuals and a people reverts to a mob.

Experts and specialists lead you quickly into chaos. They are a source of useless nit-picking, the ferocious quibble over a comma.

Never attempt to reason with people who know they are right!