Quotes by Frank Herbert

I point out to you, Marcus Claire Luyseyal, a lesson from past over-machined societies which you appear not to have learned. The devices themselves condition theusers to employ each other the way they employ machines.

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

Most civilisation is based on cowardice. Its so easy to civilize by teaching cowardice. You water down the standards which would lead to bravery. You restrain the will. You regulate the appetites. You fence in the horizons. You make a law for every movement. You deny the existence of chaos. You teach even the children to breathe slowly. You tame.

Whats law? Control? Law filters chaos and what drips through? Serenity? Law -- our highest ideal and our basest nature. Dont look too closely at the law. Do, and youll find the rationalized interpretations, the legal casuistry, the precedents of convenience. Youll find the serenity, which is just another word for death.

You see, gentlemen, they have something to die for. Theyve discovered theyre a people. Theyre awakening.

A killer with the manners of a rabbit - this is the most dangerous kind.

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.

But, later, coming back and reading what I have produced, I am unable to detect the difference between what came easily and when I had to sit down and say, Well, now its writing time and now Ill write.

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

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?

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

If you focus your awareness only upon your own rightness, then you invite the forces of opposition to overwhelm you.

One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp too strongly is to be taken over by power, and thus to become its victim.

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?

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

For what do you hunger, Lord?” Moneo ventured.“For a humankind which can make truly long-term decisions. Do you know the key to that ability, Moneo?”“You have said it many times, Lord. It is the ability to change your mind.

Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept?

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