Frank Herbert Quotes

He realized suddenly that it was one thing to see the past occupying the present, but the true test of prescience was to see the past in the future. Things persisted in not being what they seemed.

Whether a thought is spoken or not, it is a real thing and has powers of reality.

When we encounter personal problems, those things most deeply personal are the most difficult to bring out for our logic to scan.

When strangers meet, great allowances should be made for differences in custom and training.

Don't sit with your back to any doors.

The universe is full of doors.

Reason is the first victim of strong emotion, " Scytale murmured.

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.

Use the first moments in study. You may miss many an opportunity for quick victory in this way, but the moment the study are in insurance of success. Take your time and be sure.

The Atreides are known to start late getting there growth.

Cynicism! That, no doubt is a greater crime than heresy.

What delicious abandon in the sleep of the child. Where do we lose it?

You must teach me the way you thrust your worries aside and turn to practical matters.

I have said: "Blow out the lamp! Day is here!" And you keep saying: "Give me a lamp so I can find the day.

What was it St. Augustine said? "The mind commands the body and it obeys. The mind orders itself and meets resistance.

And the question of Wester religion, ” Flattery said, “is: What lies beyond death? But the question of the Zen master is: What lies beyond waking?

Hayt felt suddenly that he existed in a dream controlled by some other mind, and that he might momentarily forget this to become lost in the convolutions of that mind.

The knife is more dangerous than the hand and the knife can be in either hand.

Nothing wins more loyalty for a leader than an air of bravura, " the Duke said. "I, therefore, cultivate an air of bravura.

Then are there no rules at all, Lord?” Moneo's voice conveyed a faint hint of hysteria.Leto smiled to ease the man's tensions. “Perhaps one. Short–term decisions tend to fail in the long–term.

Mood’s a thing for cattle or for making love. You fight when the necessity arises, no matter your mood.

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.

The hunter does not seek dead game.

You do not beg the sun for mercy.-Maud'dib's Travail from The Stilgar Commentary

As long as my Duke remains unmarried some of the Great Houses can still hope for alliance.

And loyalty is a valued commodity. It can be sold . . . not bought, but sold.

We have a disturbed relationship with our past which religion cannot explain. We are primitive in unexplainable ways, our lives woven of the familiar and the strange, the reasonable and the insane.

How would we flood village and city with our information? The people must learn how well I govern them. How would they know if we didn't tell them?

Chance is the nature of our universe. […] madness represents a chaotic reservoir of surprises. Some surprises can be valuable.

Hard tasks need hard ways.

He straightened, assuming an odd attitude of dignity – as though it were another mask.

The price we paid was the price men have always paid for achieving a paradise in this life--we went soft, we lost our edge.

One moment of incompetence can be fatal.

It could be a work of art among vendettas

No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero

Do you wrestle with dreams? Do you contend with shadows? Do you move in a kind of sleep? Time has slipped away. Your life is stolen. You tarried with trifles, Victim of your folly.

We will not run, " Paul said. "We'll move with dignity. We'll do what must be done.

We will never forgive and we will never forget.

Respect for the truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. Something cannot emerge from nothing.