Frank Herbert Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 100 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Frank Herbert.
Famous Quotes By Frank Herbert
All proofs inevitably lead to propositions which have no proof! All things are known because we want to believe in them. — Frank Herbert
The surest way to keep a secret is to make someone think they already know the answer. — Frank Herbert
When he wanted, he could radiate charm and sincerity, but I often wonder in these later days if anything about him was as it seemed. I think now he was a man fighting constantly to escape the bars of an invisible cage. — Frank Herbert
...We Fremen have a saying: 'God created Arrakis to train the faithful.' One cannot go against the word of God. — Frank Herbert
Caution is the path to mediocrity. Gliding, passionless mediocrity is all that most people think they can achieve. — Frank Herbert
They were undoubtedbly sincere in subscribing to the argument that nuclear weapons were a reserve held for one purpose: defense of humankind should a threatening 'other intelligence' ever be encountered. — Frank Herbert
Monarchies have some good features beyond their star qualities. They can reduce the size and parasitic nature of the management bureaucracy. They can make speedy decisions when necessary. They fit an ancient human demand for a parental (tribal/feudal) hierarchy where every person knows his place. It is valuable to know your place, even if that place is temporary. It is galling to be held in place against your will. This is why I teach about tyranny in the best possible way - by example. — Frank Herbert
Paul confronted his son then, aiming the eyeless sockets at Leto. "Do you really know the universe you have created here? — Frank Herbert
I cannot lie to you any more than I could lie to myself," Paul said. "I know this. Every man should have such an auditor. — Frank Herbert
There's an unwritten compact between you and the reader. If someone enters a bookstore and sets down hard earned money (energy) for your book, you owe that person some entertainment and as much more as you can give. — Frank Herbert
Military foolishness is ultimately suicidal. They believe that by risking death they pay the price of any violent behavior against enemies of their own choosing. They have the invader mentality, that false sense of freedom from responsibility for your own actions. — Frank Herbert
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. — Frank Herbert
Better a dry morsel and quietness therewith than a house full of sacrifice and strife. — Frank Herbert
How do we approach the study of Muad'Dib's father? A man of surpassing warmth and surprising coldness was the Duke Leto Atreides. Yet, many facts open the way to this Duke: his abiding love for his Bene Gesserit lady; the dreams he held for his son; the devotion with which men served him. You see him there - a man snared by Destiny, a lonely figure with his light dimmed behind the glory of his son. Still, one must ask: What is the son but an extension of the father? — Frank Herbert
They'd chosen always the clear, safe course that leads ever downward into stagnation. — Frank Herbert
The summer Night comes brooding down on Earth, As Love comes brooding down on human hearts, With bliss that hath no utterance save rich tears. She floats in fragrance down the smiling dark, Foldeth a kiss upon the lips of Life
Curtaineth into rest the weary world
And shuts us in with all our hid delights. — Frank Herbert
Then, as his planet killed him, it occurred to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error. — Frank Herbert
She rides the sandworm of space!
She guides through all storms
Into the land of gentle winds.
Though we sleep by the snake's den,
She guards our dreaming sould.
Shunning the desert heat,
She hides us in a cool hollow.
The gleaming of her white teeth
Guides us in the night.
By the braids of her hair
We are lifted to heaven!
Sweet fragrance, flower-scented,
Surrounds us in her presence. — Frank Herbert
We Bene Gesserit sift people to find the humans. — Frank Herbert
That which makes a man superhuman is terrifying. — Frank Herbert
I didn't want to be different.
I wanted to be able to laugh
But I'm sister to an Emperor who's worshiped as a god. People fear me. I never wanted to be feared.
I don't want to be part of history, I just want to be loved ... and to love. — Frank Herbert
A man is a fool not to put everything he has, at any given moment, into what he is creating. You're there now doing the thing on paper. You're not killing the goose, you're just producing an egg. So I don't worry about inspiration, or anything like that. It's a matter of just sitting down and working. I have never had the problem of a writing block. I've heard about it. I've felt reluctant to write on some days, for whole weeks, or sometimes even longer. I'd much rather go fishing, for example, or go sharpen pencils, or go swimming, or what not. 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 it's writing time and now I'll write." There's no difference on paper between the two. — Frank Herbert
We can say that Muad'Dib 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. — Frank Herbert
That was the thing he resented about religion, Bickel thought - the way it appealed to emotion rather than intelligence. — Frank Herbert
Love is not a mood, but a dynamic way of being. — Frank Herbert
It is impossible to live in the past, difficult to live in the present and a waste to live in the future. — Frank Herbert
The voice of a rebeck echoed from somewhere behind him. The music echoed and echoed until it entered his head, still echoing. It suffused his body and he felt himself to be large, very large, not a child at all. And his skin was not his own. — Frank Herbert
You know it's love when you want to give joy and damn the consequences. — Frank Herbert
Paul stepped past her, lifting his binoculars. He adjusted their internal pressure with a quick twist, focused the oil lenses on the other cliff, lifting golden tan in morning light across open sand. Jessica — Frank Herbert
The best contribution one can make to humanity is to improve oneself. — Frank Herbert
Words are such gross machinery, so primitive and ambiguous. — Frank Herbert
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? — Frank Herbert
The mistakes (of leaders) are amplified by the numbers who follow them without question. Charismatic leaders tend to build up followings, power structures and these power structures tend to be taken over by people who are corruptible. I don't think that the old saw about 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely' is accurate: I think power attracts the corruptible. — Frank Herbert
Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them. — Frank Herbert
Paul crouched at the ready and, as he had been trained to do after first blood, called out: Do you yield? — Frank Herbert
Remember your philosopher's doubts, Miles. Beware! The mind of the believer stagnates. It fails to grow outward into an unlimited, infinite universe. — Frank Herbert
Enter no conflict against fanatics unless you can defuse them. Oppose a religion with another religion only if your proofs (miracles) are irrefutable or if you can mesh in a way that the fanatics accept you as god-inspired. This has long been the barrier to science assuming a mantle of divine revelation. Science is so obviously man-made. Fanatics (and many are fanatic on one subject or another) must know where you stand, but more important, must recognise who whispers in your ear. - Missionaria Protectiva, Primary Teaching. — Frank Herbert
Hold at your neck the gom jabbar," she said. "The gom jabbar, the high-handed enemy. It's a needle with a drop of poison on its tip. Ah-ah! Don't pull away or you'll feel that poison. — Frank Herbert
the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error. Even — Frank Herbert
We're afloat in amniotic fluid.' 'How's that?' 'Salt water. It's chemically almost identical with the fluid surrounding an unborn baby. — Frank Herbert
The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it. — Frank Herbert
You should fear me, Mother. I am the Kwisatz Haderach." Jessica — Frank Herbert
Mankind has only one science ... its the science of discontent. — Frank Herbert
Since every individual is accountable ultimately to the self, the formation of that self demands our utmost care and attention. — Frank Herbert
There are illusions of popular history which a successful religion must promote: Evil men never prosper; only the brave deserve the fair; honesty is the best policy; actions speak louder than words; virtue always triumphs; a good deed is its own reward; any bad human can be reformed; religious talismans protect one from demon possession; only females understand the ancient mysteries; the rich are doomed to unhappiness. — Frank Herbert
My father rules an entire planet."
"He's losing it. — Frank Herbert
To determine if you're human. Be silent. — Frank Herbert
Remember: Bureaucracy elevates conformity ... Make that elevates 'fatal stupidity' to the status of religion. — Frank Herbert
Duncan, have I not told you that when you think you know something, that is a most perfect barrier against learning? — Frank Herbert
How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him. — Frank Herbert
The writing of history is largely a diversion. Most historical accounts distract attention from the secret influences behind great events. — Frank Herbert
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. — Frank Herbert
The creature all men on Arrakis fear, you treat it like a riding animal. — Frank Herbert
This myth he'd made out of intricate movements and imagination, out of moonlight and love, out of prayers older than Adam, and gray cliffs and crimson shadows, laments and rivers of martyrs - what had it come to at last? When the waves receded, the shores of Time would spread out there clean, empty, shining with infinite grains of memory and little else. — Frank Herbert
The convoluted wording of legalisms grew up around the necessity to hide from ourselves the violence we intend toward each other. Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. You have done violence to him, consumed his energy. — Frank Herbert
I'll never be a Mentat," he said. "I'm something else ... a freak. — Frank Herbert
A stone is heavy and the sand is weighty; but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both. — Frank Herbert
Color streamed into a toe of darkness testing the sand. — Frank Herbert
The proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence. On that path lies danger. — Frank Herbert
And he thought: I'm a seed.
He suddenly saw how fertile was the ground into which he had fallen, and with this realization, the terrible purpose filled him, creeping through the empty places within, threatening to choke him with grief. — Frank Herbert
He aspires to rule my Barony, yet he cannot rule himself. — Frank Herbert
It is said in the desert that possession of water in great amount can inflict a man with fatal carelessness. — Frank Herbert
In all Things you must appear important. No minor decisions pass through your hands unless they are quiet acts called 'Favors' done for people whose loyalty can be earned. — Frank Herbert
At the age of fifteen, he had already learned silence. — Frank Herbert
If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual. — Frank Herbert
You never talk of likelihoods on Arrakis. You speak only of possibilities. — Frank Herbert
Ambitions tend to Remain undisturbed by Realities. — Frank Herbert
You should never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die. — Frank Herbert
Chance is the nature of our universe. [ ... ] madness represents a chaotic reservoir of surprises. Some surprises can be valuable. — Frank Herbert
To be sighted in the land of the blind carries its own perils. — Frank Herbert
From the Hive Manual. The relationship between ecology and evolution is extremely close, deeply implicated in organic changes among a given animal population, and profoundly sensitive to the density of numbers within a given habitat. Our adaptations aim to increase the population tolerance, to permit a human density ten to twelve times greater than is currently considered possible. Out of this, we will get our survival variations. — Frank Herbert
Any man who retreats into a cave which has only one opening deserves to die. — Frank Herbert
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. — Frank Herbert
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty. — Frank Herbert
There's another thing, Jessica thought. Paul must be cautioned about their women. One of these desert women would not do as wife to a Duke. As concubine, yes, but not as wife. — Frank Herbert
I'm the well-trained fruit tree. Full of well-trained feelings and abilities and all of them grafted onto me — Frank Herbert
The wise man molds himself - the fool lives only to die. — Frank Herbert
Grief is the price of victory, — Frank Herbert
What we should have done was test the gift first. We should have probed for dangers. We were too bedazzled by it, though. — Frank Herbert
Is evolution just another name for God? — Frank Herbert
Once you've given orders on a subject, you must always give orders on that subject." The — Frank Herbert
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. — Frank Herbert
The smoke! The golden smoke!
His robe whipped upward, turning him until his face was directed downward into the abyss. With his gaze on the depths, he recognized a maelstrom of boiling rapids there, the mirror of his life-precipitous currents and plunges, all movement gathering up all substance. Leto's words wound through his mind on a path of golden smoke: "Caution is the path to mediocrity. Gliding, passionless mediocrity is all that most people think they can achieve." Moneo fell freely then in the ecstasy of awareness. The universe opened for him like clear glass, everything flowing in a no Time. — Frank Herbert
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? — Frank Herbert
Individual human experience is not the overriding control factor in human behavior. The cellular social pattern dominates. — Frank Herbert
When politics and religion are intermingled, a people is suffused with a sense of invulnerability, and gathering speed in their forward charge, they fail to see the cliff ahead of them — Frank Herbert
A human being can stand any amount of pain. — Frank Herbert
This is likely one of the roots of Fremen emphasis on superstition (disregarding the Missionaria Protectiva's ministrations). What matter that whistling sands are an omen? What matter that you must make the sign of the fist when first you see First Moon? A man's flesh is his own and his water belongs to the tribe - and the mystery of life isn't a problem to solve but a reality to experience. Omens help you remember this. And because you are here, because you have the religion, victory cannot evade you in the end. — Frank Herbert
War is the most readily available form of chaos. — Frank Herbert