Top 433 Quotes & Sayings by Frank Herbert - Page 7

What does a mirror look at?

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.

I never thought it would be easy to serve God," she said. "I just didn't think it would be this hard.

Paired opposites define your longings and those longings imprison you.

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.

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?

Anything less than abject submission has to have some attack in it.

A man's flesh is his own; the water belongs to the tribe.

His voice was low, charged with unspeakable adjectives.

When I was writing Dune there was no room in my mind for concerns about the book's success or failure. I was concerned only with the writing. Six years of research had preceded the day I sat down to put the story together, and the interweaving of the many plot layers I had planned required a degree of concentration I had never before experienced.

That is one of the Law's purposes, of course: to test the qualities of those who choose to employ it.

Peace for any prolonged period of time is impossible. Humans have a natural thirst for chaos and war is the most readily available form of chaos.

A good companion is one you wouldn't mind dying with.

There are limits to power, as those who put their hopes in a constitution always discover.

Words can carry any burden we wish. All that's required is agreement and a tradition upon which to build.

A leader, you see, is one of the things that distinguishes a mob from a people.

Death makes a prophet's voice louder.

To stay awake all night adds a day to your life.

To know a thing well, know it's limits; Only when pushed beyond it's tolerance will it's true nature be seen. -The Amtal Rule

There's hope left in these dusty chords. There's a song left in our rusty hearts. We are torn and frayed but love remains.

Money to a writer is time to write.

The hearts of all men dwell in the same wilderness.

Does a population have informed consent when that population is not taught the inner workings of its monetary system, and then is drawn, all unknowing, into economic adventures?

What you of the CHOAM directorate seem unable to understand is that you seldom find real loyalties in commerce. ... Men must want to do things of their own innermost drives. People, not commercial organizations or chains of command, are what make great civilizations work. Every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces. If you over-organize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatness - they cannot work and their civilization collapses.

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.

What are you, child, that you need time to learn about yourself?

There exists no separation between gods and men; one blends softly casual into the other.

Every civilization must contend with an unconscious force which can block, betray, or countermand almost any conscious intention of the collectivity.

Time can also be a place.... Everything depends on where you are standing, on where you look or what you hear. The measure of it is found in consciousness itself.

If you rely only on your eyes, your other senses weaken.

Democracy is susceptible to being led astray by having scapegoats paraded in front of the electorate.

A creature who has spent his life creating one particular representation of his selfdom will die rather than become the antithesis of that representation

There is in each of us an ancient force that takes and an ancient force that gives. A man finds little difficulty facing that place within himself where the taking force dwells, but it's almost impossible for him to see into the giving force without changing into something other than man. For a woman, the situation is reversed. ... These things are so ancient within us that they're ground into each separate cell of our bodies... It's as easy to be overwhelmed by giving as by taking.

“You may have eternity. I have only now.” “But this is eternity.”

Absolute prediction is completion . . . is death!

Ultimately, all things are known because you want to believe you know.

Major flaw in government arise from a fear of making radical internal changes even though a need is clearly seen.

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.

Enemies strengthn you. Allies weaken you.

Balance is what distinguishs a people from a mob.

A human being can stand any amount of pain.

A person cries out in life because it's lonely and because life's been 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.

Who are the rabble and who are the ruled?

Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.

Jessica stopped beside him, said: 'What delicious abandon in the sleep of a child.' He spoke mechanically: 'If only adults could relax like that.' 'Yes.' 'Where do we lose it?' he murmured. 'We do, indeed, lose something,' she said.

What you cannot control, you must accept.

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

Humans are almost always lonely.

Grief is the price of victory.

Ask what Infinity might produce and the only answer possible was, "Anything." Any good, any evil; any god, any devil.

Often I must speak otherwise than I think. This is called diplomacy.

Men always fear things which move by themselves.

What is important for a leader is that which makes him a leader. It is the needs of his people.

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

Time is a measure of space, just as a range-finder is a measure of space, but measuring locks us into the place we measure.

Learning a language represents training in the delusions of that language.

Give me a lamp so I can find the day.

Scientists seek the lawfulness of events. It is the task of Religion to fit man into this lawfulness.

We are questioning more than the philosophy behind our dependence upon limited and limiting systems. We question the power structures that have grown up around such systems.

Humans live best when each has his place, when each knows where he belongs in the scheme of things. Destroy the place and destroy the person.