Famous Quotes & Sayings

Frank Herbert Quotes & Sayings

Enjoy the top 100 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Frank Herbert.

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Famous Quotes By Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1754805

All proofs inevitably lead to propositions which have no proof! All things are known because we want to believe in them. — Frank Herbert

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The surest way to keep a secret is to make someone think they already know the answer. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 2233013

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 662214

...We Fremen have a saying: 'God created Arrakis to train the faithful.' One cannot go against the word of God. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1490175

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 663580

Caution is the path to mediocrity. Gliding, passionless mediocrity is all that most people think they can achieve. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1952798

QUESTION: Who governs the governors?
ANSWER: Entropy. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 874828

my deal's the only one in town — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 277614

All men beneath your position covet your station, — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1982846

Balance is what distinguishs a people from a mob. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1295032

The whole universe sat there, open to the man who could make the right
decisions. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1279235

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1751231

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1185640

Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect any who seek it. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1910594

Paul confronted his son then, aiming the eyeless sockets at Leto. "Do you really know the universe you have created here? — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1360539

One moment of incompetence can be fatal. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1610223

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1029680

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 659984

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 163433

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 324496

Better a dry morsel and quietness therewith than a house full of sacrifice and strife. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1703965

Blood is thicker than water, but politics are thicker than blood. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1773132

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1647572

They'd chosen always the clear, safe course that leads ever downward into stagnation. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1152412

Do not make the error of considering my son a child, the Duke said. And he smiled. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1826850

There is only one true wealth in all the universe
living time. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 417048

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1850189

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1850610

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1835151

We Bene Gesserit sift people to find the humans. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1792108

That which makes a man superhuman is terrifying. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1782913

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 247921

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1752157

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 286663

That was the thing he resented about religion, Bickel thought - the way it appealed to emotion rather than intelligence. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1727467

Love is not a mood, but a dynamic way of being. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1712624

It is impossible to live in the past, difficult to live in the present and a waste to live in the future. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1634955

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 311584

You know it's love when you want to give joy and damn the consequences. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1605898

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

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The best contribution one can make to humanity is to improve oneself. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 2018652

Words are such gross machinery, so primitive and ambiguous. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 121451

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 2208382

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 167106

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

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Paul crouched at the ready and, as he had been trained to do after first blood, called out: Do you yield? — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 2112197

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 2110321

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 2109361

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

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the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error. Even — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 2062037

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 2038241

The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1479216

You should fear me, Mother. I am the Kwisatz Haderach." Jessica — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 174634

Mankind has only one science ... its the science of discontent. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1969492

Since every individual is accountable ultimately to the self, the formation of that self demands our utmost care and attention. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 176041

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1949767

My father rules an entire planet."
"He's losing it. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 186283

To determine if you're human. Be silent. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1901138

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1900452

Duncan, have I not told you that when you think you know something, that is a most perfect barrier against learning? — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1896631

How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1882001

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 767143

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

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The creature all men on Arrakis fear, you treat it like a riding animal. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 990297

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 972174

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

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I'll never be a Mentat," he said. "I'm something else ... a freak. — Frank Herbert

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A stone is heavy and the sand is weighty; but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 902067

Color streamed into a toe of darkness testing the sand. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 881544

The proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence. On that path lies danger. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 550512

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 852101

He aspires to rule my Barony, yet he cannot rule himself. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 546261

It is said in the desert that possession of water in great amount can inflict a man with fatal carelessness. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 766482

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

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At the age of fifteen, he had already learned silence. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 755093

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 720818

You never talk of likelihoods on Arrakis. You speak only of possibilities. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 707522

Ambitions tend to Remain undisturbed by Realities. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 687768

You should never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die. — Frank Herbert

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 625688

To be sighted in the land of the blind carries its own perils. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1193451

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

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Any man who retreats into a cave which has only one opening deserves to die. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1402669

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

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Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1310880

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1308632

I'm the well-trained fruit tree. Full of well-trained feelings and abilities and all of them grafted onto me — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 415632

The wise man molds himself - the fool lives only to die. — Frank Herbert

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Grief is the price of victory, — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1235628

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1197395

Is evolution just another name for God? — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 648400

Once you've given orders on a subject, you must always give orders on that subject." The — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 477377

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1183897

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1167097

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1157631

Individual human experience is not the overriding control factor in human behavior. The cellular social pattern dominates. — Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes 1120366

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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1096697

A human being can stand any amount of pain. — Frank Herbert

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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

Frank Herbert Quotes 1029757

War is the most readily available form of chaos. — Frank Herbert