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e6deb46
|
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."
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Frank Herbert |
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4b13b1e
|
No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero
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Frank Herbert |
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48c35e7
|
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. Elaborate euphemisms may conceal your intent to kill, but behind any use of power over another the ultimate assumption remains: "I feed on y..
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violence
time
politics
power
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Frank Herbert |
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1f146bf
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People don't vote. Instinct tells them it's useless.
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Frank Herbert |
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05eada7
|
Prisons are needed only to provide the illusion that courts and police are effective. They're a kind of job insurance.
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Frank Herbert |
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f46874b
|
Reason is the first victim of strong emotion," Scytale murmured."
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emotion
reason
scytale
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Frank Herbert |
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5720755
|
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,..
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dune
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Frank Herbert |
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19ad0b9
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You do not beg the sun for mercy. -Maud'dib's Travail from The Stilgar Commentary
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mercy
sun
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Frank Herbert |
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604dd4b
|
There has never been a truly selfless rebel, just hypocrites--conscious hypocrites or unconscious hypocrites, it's all the same.
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Frank Herbert |
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fcc4bbb
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Beware of the truth, gentle Sister. Although much sought after, truth can be dangerous to the seeker. Myths and reassuring lies are much easier to find and believe. If you find a truth, even a temporary one, it can demand that you make painful changes. Conceal your truths within words. Natural ambiguity will protect you then.
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Frank Herbert |
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e32c96f
|
Only fools prefer the past!
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Frank Herbert |
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fd5ecac
|
She looked at patches of blackness. Black is a blind remembering, she thought.
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Frank Herbert |
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d22fc0f
|
Behold, as a wild ass in the desert, go I forth to my work.
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gurney-halleck
epigram
|
Frank Herbert |
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06ac0c7
|
Dangers lurk in all systems. Systems incorporate the unexamined beliefs of their creators. Adopt a system, accept its beliefs, and you help strengthen the resistance to change
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systems
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Frank Herbert |
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7ae85e1
|
I never thought it would be easy to serve God," she said. "I just didn't think it would be this hard."
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spiritual
religous
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Frank Herbert |
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d25e6bc
|
Riots and comedy are but symptoms of the times, profoundly revealing. They betray the psychological tone, the deep uncertainties....and the striving for something better, plus the fear that nothing would come of it all.
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Frank Herbert |
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31bcbb6
|
It was mostly sweet," he whispered, "and you were the sweetest of all." --
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Frank Herbert |
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1e29e10
|
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..
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tyranny
|
Frank Herbert |
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f3505b1
|
There's a Bene Gesserit saying," she said. "You have sayings for everything!" he protested. "You'll like this one," she said. "It goes: 'Do not count a human dead until you've seen his body. And even then you can make a mistake."
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Frank Herbert |
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bb90433
|
The night is a tunnel, she thought, a hole into tomorrow...
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Frank Herbert |
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040031c
|
Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government?
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religion
wisdom
strategy
|
Frank Herbert |
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d896d0d
|
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.
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Frank Herbert |
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977f7bf
|
Ready comprehension is often a knee-jerk response and the most dangerous form of understanding. It blinks an opaque screen over your ability to learn. Be warned. Understand nothing. All comprehension is temporary.
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learning
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Frank Herbert |
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579c292
|
Abandon certainty! That's life's deepest command. That's what life's all about. We're a probe into the unknown, into the uncertain. Why can't you hear Muad'Dib? If certainty is knowing absolutely an absolute future, then that's only death disguised! Such a future becomes now!
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Frank Herbert |
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2d46039
|
They say they seek security and quiet, the condition they call peace. Even as they speak they create the seeds of turmoil and violence.
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Frank Herbert |
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4ba5937
|
O you who know what we suffer here, do not forget us in your prayers.
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Frank Herbert |
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07da409
|
It occurred to her that mercy was the ability to stop, if only for a moment. There was no mercy where there could be no stopping.
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Frank Herbert |
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6e5256a
|
Prophets have a way of dying by violence.
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Frank Herbert |
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27daeb9
|
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.
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Frank Herbert |
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15e5cb0
|
Privilege becomes arrogance. Arrogance promotes injustice. The seeds of ruin blossom.
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Frank Herbert |
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de1705c
|
History is a constant race between invention and catastrophe. Education helps but it's never enough. You also must run.
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history
|
Frank Herbert |
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1a11ffe
|
I know the evil of my ancestors because I am those people. The balance is delicate in the extreme. I know that few of you who read my words have ever thought about your ancestors this way. It has not occurred to you that your ancestors were survivors and that the survival itself sometimes involved savage decisions, a kind of wanton brutality which civilized humankind works very hard to suppress. What price will you pay for that suppression?..
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|
frank-herbert
god-emperor-of-dune
|
Frank Herbert |
|
a97b6bb
|
The thing the ecologically illiterate don't realise about an ecosystem is that it's a system. A system! A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche. A system has order, flowing from point to point. If something dams that flow, order collapses. The untrained might miss that collapse until it was too late. That's why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.
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science
dune
wildlife
ecology
|
Frank Herbert |
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ea53f8a
|
No matter how much we ask after the truth, self-awareness is often unpleasant. We do not feel kindly toward the Truthsayer.
|
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self-awareness
identity
truth
|
Frank Herbert |
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e95ced0
|
Small souls who seek power over others first destroy the faith those others might have in themselves.
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|
self
power
|
Frank Herbert |
|
b79e641
|
My Uncle Malky always said the Lord Leto never responded to prayer. He said the Lord Leto looked on prayer as attempted coercion, a form of violence against the chosen god, telling the immortal what to do: Give me a miracle, God, or I won't believe in you!
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prayer
religion
god
|
Frank Herbert |
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9d0b07d
|
A voice hissed: "He sheds tears!" It was taken around the ring "Usal gives moisture to the dead!" He felt fingers touch his damp cheek, heard the awed whispers."
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Frank Herbert |
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583fd65
|
TO THE LADY JESSICA- May this place give you as much pleasure as it has given me. Please permit the room to convey a lesson we learned from the same teachers: the proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence. On that path lies danger. My kindest wishes, MARGOT LADY FENRING
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Frank Herbert |
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1fccb68
|
You cannot avoid the interplay of politics within an orthodox religion. The power struggle permeates the training, education and disciplining of the orthodox community. Because of this pressure, the leaders of such a community inevitably much face that ultimate internal question: to succumb to complete opportunism as the price of maintaining their rule, or risk sacrificing themselves for the sake of the orthodox ethic.
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Frank Herbert |
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b765fb6
|
the sleeper must awaken
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|
Frank Herbert |
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76fbf7d
|
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."
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individuality
humanity
life
|
Frank Herbert |
|
42cf0ae
|
Use the first moments in study. You may miss many an opportunity for quick victory this way, but the moments of study are insurance of success. Take your time and be sure.
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|
Frank Herbert |
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694a90b
|
It has occurred to me more than once that holy boredom is good and sufficient reason for the invention of free will.
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science-fiction
|
Frank Herbert |
|
f658773
|
Maud'Dib could indeed, see the Future, but you must understand the limits of this power. Think of sight. You have eyes, yet cannot see without light. If you are on the floor of a valley, you cannot see beyond the valley. Just so, Maud'Dib could not always choose to look across the mysterious terrain. He tells us that a single obscure decision of prophecy, perhaps the choice of one word over another, could change the entire aspect of the fut..
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Frank Herbert |