Frank Herbert Quotes
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Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain.
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When I was quite young... I began to suspect there must be flaws in my sense of reality. It seemed to my dim sense of confusion that things often blended one into another, and the Law of Excluded Middle merely opened up a void wherein anything was possible. But I had been produced to focus on objects (things) and not on systems (processes).
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'A slave is one who must produce wealth for another,' the Brain said. 'There is only one true wealth in all the universe. I have given you some of it. I have given your father and your mate some of it. And your friends. This wealth is living time. Time. Are we slaves because we have given you more time to live?'
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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.
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The proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence. On that path lies danger.
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Wealth is a tool of freedom, but the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery.
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One of the most important things is corporate politics. Big corporations are bureaucracies that often promote people who are best at covering their asses. Such people run scared, fearful of any suggestion they can make mistakes. And they surround themselves with others who run the same way. Don't take risks. Find out what succeeds and copy it.
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I must not fear.
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Think you of the fact that a deaf person cannot hear. Then, what deafness may we not all possess? What senses do we lack that we cannot see and cannot hear another world all around us?
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All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.
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This group is composed of those for whom belief in saucers is tantamount to religion...They believe men from outer space will step in on Earth 'before it's too late,' put a stop to the atomic bomb threat 'by their superior powers,' and enforce perpetual peace 'for the good of the universe'...
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Does a population have informed consent when a ruling minority acts in secret to ignite a war, doing this to justify the existence of the minority's forces? … failure to provide full information for informed consent on such an issue represents an ultimate crime.
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Providence and Manifest Destiny are synonyms often invoked to support arguments based on wishful thinking.
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What do you despise? By this are you truly known.
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It wasn’t the kind of answer he'd expected - too subtly penetrating and leaving too much uncommitted. He reminded himself that it was difficult to control uncommitted people. Once a man had invested his energies, he could be twisted and turned at will... but if the man held back, conserved those energies...
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How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him.
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When a wise man does not understand, he says: 'I do not understand.' The fool and the uncultured are ashamed of their ignorance. They remain silent when a question could bring them wisdom.
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Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.
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Enemies make you stronger, allies make you weaker.
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Governments always commit their entire populations when the demands grow heavy enough. By their passive acceptance, these populations become accessories to whatever is done in their name.
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Religion often partakes of the myth of progress that shields us from the terrors of an uncertain future.
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A person cries out against life because it's lonely, and because life's broken off from whatever created it. But no matter how much you hate life, you love it, too. It's like a caldron boiling with everything you have to have - but very painful to the lips.
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He who can destroy a thing, can control a thing.
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Truth suffers from too much analysis.