Dune (the entire series)

Bureaucracy destroys initiative.  There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines.  Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept.  Who enjoys appearing inept? - A Guide to Trial and Error in Government, Bene Gesserit Archives

How will I be remembered by my children? This is the true measure of a man. - Abulurd Harkonnen

Some never participate.  Life happens to them.  They get by on little more than dumb persistence and resist with anger or violence all things that might lift them out of resentment-filled illusions of security. - Alma Mavis Taraza

In adverse circumstances, every creature becomes something else, evolving or devolving.  What makes us human is that we know what we once were, and–let us hope–we remember how to change back. - Ambassador Cammar Pilru

At the quantum level our universe can be seen as an indeterminate place, predictable in a statistical way only when you employ large enough numbers.  Between that universe and a relatively predictable one where the pssage of a single planet can be timed to a picosecond, other forces come into play.  For the in-between universe where we find our daily lives, that which you believe is a dominant force.  Your beliefs order the unfolding of daily events.  If enough of us believe, a new thing can be made to exist.  Belief structure creates a filter through which chaos is sifted into order. - Analysis of the Tyrant, the Taraza File: BG Archives

Truth suffers from too much analysis. - Ancient Fremen Saying

The surest way to keep a secret is to make people believe they already know the answer. - Ancient Fremen Wisdom

Quite naturally, holders of power wish to suppress wild research.  Unrestricted questing after knowledge has a long history of producing unwanted competition.  The powerful want a ’safe line of investigations,’ which will develop only those products and ideas that can be controlled and, most important, that will allow the larger part of the benefits to be captured by inside investors.  Unfortunately, a random universe full of relative variables does not insure such a ’safe line of investigations.’ - Assessment of Ix, Bene Gesserit Archives

There is no reality—only our own order imposed on everything. - Basic Bene Gesserit Dictum

The haughty do but build castle walls behind which they seek to hide their doubts and fears. - Bene Gesserit Axiom

Speak the truth.  That is always much easier, and its often the most powerful argument. - Bene Gesserit Axiom

There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgements. - Bene Gesserit Axiom

One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp with too much force is to be taken over by power, thus becoming its victim. - Bene Gesserit Axiom

Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit.  This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of history have based their job security. - Bene Gesserit Coda

We tend to become like the worst in those we oppose. - Bene Gesserit Coda

Those who would repeat the past must control the teaching of history. - Bene Gesserit Coda

Storms beget storms.  Rage begets rage.  Revenge begets revenge.  Wars beget wars. - Bene Gesserit Conundrum

Religion is the emulation of the adult by the child.  Religion is the encystment of past beliefs: mythology, which is guesswork, the hidden assumptions of trust in the universe, those pronouncements which men have made in search of personal power, all of it mingled with shreds of enlightenment.  And always the ultimate unspoken commandment is ‘Thou shalt not question!’  But we question.  We break that commandment as a matter of course.  The work to which we have set ourseolves is the liberating of the imagination, the harnessing of imagination to humankind’s deepest sense of creativity. - Bene Gesserit Credo

We do not teach history; we recreate the experience.  We follow the chain of consequences–the tracks of the beast in the forest.  Look behind our words an you see the broad sweep of social behavior that no historian has ever touched. - Bene Gesserit Panoplia Propheticus

The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth. - Bene Gesserit Precept

Perceptions rule the universe. - Bene Gesserit Saying

To keep from dying is not the same as "to live". - Bene Gesserit Saying

Humans live best when each has his place to stand, when each knows where he belongs in the scheme of things and what he may achieve.  Destroy the place and you destroy the person. - Bene Gesserit Teaching

One observes the survivors, and learns from them. - Bene Gesserit Teaching

There are weapons you cannot hold in your hands.  You can only hold them in your mind. - Bene Gesserit Teaching

War is a form of organic behavior. The army is a means of survival for the all-male group.  The all-female group, on the other hand, is traditionally religion-oriented. They are the keeprs of sacred mysteries. - Bene Gesserit Teaching
Never underestimate the power of the human mind to believe what it wnats to believe, no matter the conflicting evidence. - Caedmon Erb

Hatred is as dangerous an emotion as love.  The capacity for either one is the capacity for its opposite. - Cautionary Instructions for the Sisterhood
Life cannot find reasons to sustain it, cannot be a source of decent mutual regard, unless each of us resolves to breathe such qualities into it. - Chenoeh: "Conversations with Leto II"

It requires a desperate and lonely sort of courage to challenge teh accepted wisdom upon which social peace of mind rests. - Crown Prince Raphael Corrino

There’s no secret to balance.  You just have to feel the waves. - Darwi Odrade

Give me the judgement of balanced minds in preference to laws everytime.  Codes and manuals create patterned behavior.  All patterned behavior tends to go unquestioned, gathering destructive momentum. - Darwi Odrade

The best art imitates life in a compelling way.  If it imitates a dream, it must be a dream of life.  Otherwise, there is no place where we can connect.  Our plugs don’t fit. - Darwi Odrade

Major flaws in government arise from a fear of making radical internal changes even though a need is clearly seen. - Darwi Odrade

Confine yourself to observing and you always miss the point of your own life.  The object can be stated this way: Live the best life you can.  Life is a game whose rules you learn if you leap into it and play it to the hilt.  Otherwise, you are caught off balance, continually surprised by the shifting play.  Non-players often whine and complain that luck always passes them by.  They refuse to see that they can create some of their own luck. - Darwi Odrade

Concealed behind strong barriers the heart becomes ice. - Darwi Odrade, Argument in Council

When you ask a question, do you truly want to know the answer, or are you merely flaunting your power? - Dmitri Harkonnen

Knowing where the trap is–that’s the first step in evading it. - Duke Leto Atreides
The populace must think their ruler is a greater man than they, else why should they follow him?  Above all a leader must be a showman, giving his people the bread and circuses they require. - Duke Paulus Atreides

If you surrender, you have already lost.  If you refuse to give up, though, no matter the odds against you, at least you have succeeded in trying. - Duke Paulus Atreides

Like many culinary delicacies, revenge is a dish best savored slowly, after long and delicate preparation. - Emperor Elrood IX

By your belief in singularities, in granular absolutes, you deny movement, even the movement of evolution!  While you cause a granular universe to persist in your awareness, you are blind to movement.  When things change, your absolute universe vanishes, no longer accessible to your self-limiting perceptions.  The universe has moved beyond you. - First Draft, Atreides Manifesto, Bene Gesserit Archives

All persons are contained within a single individual, just as all time is in a moment, and the entire universe is in a grain of sand. - Fremen Saying

The desert is a surgeon cutting away the skin to expose what is underneath. - Fremen Saying

Four things cannot be hidden–love, smoke, a pillar of fire, and a man striding across the open bled. - Fremen Widsom

The strictest limits are self-imposed. - Friedre Ginaz

The work to which we have set ourselves it eh liberating of the imagination, and the harnessing of the imagination to man’s physical creativity. - Friedre Ginaz

The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future. - from "Collected Sayings of Muad’Dib" by the Princess Irulan

The worst potential competition for any organism can come from its own kind.  The species consumes necessities.  Growth is limited by that necessity which is present in the least amount.  The least favorable condition controls the rate of growth. (Law of the Minimum) - From "Lessons of Arrakis"

To attempt an understanding of Muad’Dib without understanding his mortal enemies, the Harkonnens, is to attempt seeing Truth without knowing Falsehood.  It is the attempt to see the Light without knowing Darkness.  It cannot be. - from "Manual of Muad’Dib" by Princess Irulan

Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife–chopping of what’s incomplete and saying: ‘Now, it’s complete because it’s ended here.’ - from "The Collected Sayings of Muad’Dib" by the Princess Irulan

There is no escape–we pay for the violence of our ancestors. - from "The Collected Sayings of Muad’Dib" by the Princess Irulan

Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic. - from "The Sayings of Muad’Dib" by the Princess Irulan

God created Arrakis to train the faithful. - from "The Wisdom of Muad’Dib" by the Princess Irulan

Imperfections, if viewed in the proper light, can be extremely valuable.  The Great Schools, with their incessant questing for perfection, often find this postulate difficult to understand, until it is proven to them that nothing in the universe is random. - From The Philosophies of Old Terra

He’ll lead humans through the cult of death into the free air of exuberant life!  He speaks of death because that’s necessary, Stil.  It’s a tension by which the living know they’re alive.  When his Empire falls…Oh, yes, it’ll fall.  You think this is Kralizec now, but Kralizec is yet to come.  And when it comes, humans will have renewed their memory of what it’s like to be alive.  The memory will persist as long as there’s a single human living.  We’ll go through the crucible once more, Stil.  And we’ll come out of it.  We always arise from our own ashes.  Always. - Ghanima Atreides

The worst sort of protection is confidence.  The best defense is suspicion. - Hasimir Fenring

Quite the contrary.  Circles enclose.  Circles limit.  Humankind no longer is limited by the space in which to grow. - Honored Matre

Many inventions have selectively improved particular skills or abilities, emphasizing one aspect or another.  But no achievement has ever scratched the complexity or adaptability of the human mind. - Ikbhan’s Treatise on the Mind

Hope can be the greatest weapon of a downtrodden people, or the greatest enemy of those who are about to fail.  We must remain aware of its advantages and its limitations. - Lady Helena Atreides

Without a goal, a life is nothing.  Sometimes the goal becomes a man’s entire life, an all-consuming passion.  But once that goal is achieved, what then?  Oh poor man, what then? - Lady Helena Atreides

Even innocents carry within them their own guilt in their own way.  No one makes it through life without paying, in one fashion or another. - Lady Helena Atreides

Some actions have an end but no beginning; some begin but do not end.  It all depends upon where the observer is standing. - Leto Atreides

I command you to carry it always next to your heart as a reminder that all humans are prone to error and all leaders are human. - Leto Atreides II

The beginning and the end are one.  You live in air but do not see it.  A phase has closed.  Out of that closing grows the beginning of its opposite.  Thus, we will have Kralizec.  Everything returns later in changed form.  You have felt thoughts in your head; your descendants will feel thoughts in their bellies. - Leto Atreides II

The child who refuses to travel in the father’s harness, this is the symbol of man’s most unique capability.  ‘I do not have to be what my father was.  I do not have to obey my father’s rules or even believe everything he believed.  It is my strength as a human that I can make my own choices of what to believe what not to believe, of what to be and what not to be.’ - Leto Atreides II

We can still remember the golden days before Heisenberg, who showed humans the walls enclosing our predestined arguments.  The lives within me find this amusing.  Knowledge, you see, has no uses without purpose, but purpose is what builds enclosing walls. - Leto Atreides II

We go forward, we come back. - Leto Atreides II

Ignorance has its advantages.  A universe of surprises is what I pray for! - Leto Atreides II

Explosions are also compressions of time.  Observable changes in the natural universe all are explosive to some degree and from some point of view; otherwise you would not notice them.  Smooth Continuity of change, if slowed sufficiently, goes without notice by observers whose time/attention span is too short.  Thus, I tell you, I have seen changes you would never have marked. - Leto II

Time does not count itself.  You have only to look at a circle and this is apparent. - Leto II (The Tyrant)

Liberty and Freedom are complex concepts.  They go back to religious ideas of Free Will and are related to the Ruler Mystique implicit in absolute monarchs.  Without absolute monarchs patterned after the Old Gods and ruling by the grace of a belief in religious indulgence.  Liberty and Freedom would never have gained their present meaning.  These ideals owe their very existence to past examples of oppression.  And the forces that maintain such ideas will erode unless renewed by dramatic teaching or new oppressions.  This is the most basic key to my life. - Leto II, God Emperor of Dune: Dar-es-Balat Records

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. - Leto II, His Voice, from Dar-es-Balat

When I set out to lead humanity along my Golden Path I promised a lesson their bones would remember.  I know a profound pattern humans deny with words even while they actions affirm it.  They say they seek security and quiet, conditions they call peace.  Even as they speak, they create seeds of turmoil and violence. - Leto II, the God Emperor

It is your fate, forgetfulness.  All of the old lessons of life, you lose and gain and lose and gain again. - Leto II, the Voice of Dar-es-Balat

Nothing surpasses the complexity of the human mind. - Leto II: Dar-es-Balat Records

Dreams are as simple or as complicated as the dreamer. - Liet Kynes

Argument closes off the doors of the senses.  It always masks violence.  Continued too long, argument always leads to violence. - Lord Leto

The three legs of the agreement-tripod are desire, data and doubt.  Accuracy and honesty have little to do with it…Desire brings the participants together.  Data set the limits of their dialogue.  Doubt frames the questions. - Lord Leto

Radicals always see matters in terms which are too simple–black and white, good and evil, them and us.  By addressing complex matters in that way, they rip open a passage for chaos.  The art of government as you call it, is the mastery of chaos. - Lord Leto

Specialists are not to be trusted.  Specialists are masters of exclusion, experts in the narrow. - Lord Leto

That is the beginning of knowledge–the discovery of something we do not understand. - Lord Leto

The myster of life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. - Meditations from Bifrost Eyrie

The Universe is a place inaccessible, unintelligible, completely absurd…from which life—especially rational life—is estranged.  There is no place of safety, or basic principle upon which the Universe depends. There are only transitory, masked relationships, confined within limited dimensions, and bound for inevitable change. - Meditations from Bifrost Eyrie, Buddislamic Text

Special knowledge can be a terrible disadvantage if it leads you too far along a path that you cannot explain anymore. - Mentat Admonition

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.  The judgmental precedents of law function that way, littering your path with dead ends.  Be warned.  Understand nothing.  All comprehension is temporary. - Mentat Fixe (adacto)

Memory never recaptures reality.  Memory reconstructs.  All reconstructions change the original, becoming external frames of reference that inevitably fall short. - Mentat Handbook

Education is no substitute for intelligence.  That elusive quality is defined only only in part by puzzle-solving ability.  It is in the creation of new puzzles reflecting what your senses report that you round out the definition. - Mentat Text One (decto)

Many things we do naturally become difficult only when we try to make them intellectual subjects.  It is possible to know so much about a subject that you become totally ignorant. - Mentat Text Two (dicto)

Uproot your questions from their ground and the dangling roots will be seen.  More questions! - Mentat Zensufi

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 recognize who whispers in your ear. - Missionaria Protectiva, Primary Teaching

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. - Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)

Kindness is the beginning of cruelty. - Muad’Dib

I must not fear. Fear is the mindkiller. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. - Muad’Dib

All states are abstractions. - Octun Politicus, BG Archives

Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase.  This is as true of humans in the finite space of a planetary ecosystem as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask.  The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive. - Pardot Kynes

The highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences. - Pardot Kynes

The working Planetologist has acess to many resources, data, and projections.  However, his most important tools are human beings.  Only by cultivating ecological literacy among the people themselves can he save an entire planet. - Pardot Kynes

The highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences. - Pardot Kynes

We say of Muad’dib that he has gone on a journey into that land where we walk without footprints. - Preamble to the Qizarate Creed

History allows us to see the obvious–but unfortunately, not until it is too late. - Prince Raphael Corrino

To know what one out to do is not enough. - Prince Rhombur Vernius

There exists no separation between gods and men; one blends softly casual into the other. - Proverbs of Muad’dib

Why look for meaning where there is none? Would you follow a path you know leads no where? - Query of the Mentat School

The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The willingness to learn is a choice. - Rebec of Ginaz

Grave this on your memory, lad: A world is support by four things…the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valor of the brave.  But all of these are as nothing….without a ruler who knows the art of ruling.  Make that the science of your tradition! - Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam

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

The universe is our picture. Only the immature imagine the cosmos to be what they think it is. - Sigan Visee

There was a man who sat each day looking out through a narrow vertical opening where a single board had been removed from a tall wooden fence.  Each day a wild ass of the desert passed outside the fence and across the narrow opening–first the nose, then the head, the forelegs, the long brown back, the hindlegs, and lastly the tail.  One day, the man leaped to his feat with the light of discovery in his eyes and he shouted for all who could hear him: ‘It is obvious!  The nose causes the tail!’ - Stories of the Hidden Wisdom, from the Oral History of Rakis

The human body is a machine, a system of organic chemicals, fluid conduits, electrical impulses; a government is likewise a machine of interacting societies, laws, cultures, rewards and punishments, patterns of behavior.  Ultimately, the universe itself is a machine, planets around suns, stars gathered into clusters, clusters and other suns forming entire galaxies…Our job is to keep the machinery functioning. - Suk Inner School, Primary Doctrine

To know a thing well, know it limits.  Only when pushed beyond its tolerances will true nature be seen. - The Amtal Rule

Most discipline is hidden discipline, designed not to liberate but ot limit.  Do not ask Why?  Be cautious with How?  Why? leads inexorably to paradox.  How? traps you in a universe of cause an effect.  Both deny the infinite. - The Apocrypha of Arrakis

This is the awe-inspiring universe of magic:  There are no atoms, only waves and motions all around.  Here, you discard all belief in barriers to understanding.  You put aside understanding itself.  This universe cannot be seen, cannot be heard, cannot be detected in any way by fixed perceptions.  It is the ultimate void where no preordained screens occur upon which forms may be projected.  You have only one awareness here–the screen of the magi: Imagination!  Here, you learn what it is to be human.  You are a creator of order, of beautiful shapes and systems, an organizer of chaos. - The Atreides Manifesto, Bene Gesserit Archives

The writing of history is largely a process of diversion.  Most historical accounts distract attention from the secret influences behind great events. - The Bashar Teg

The basic rule is this: Never support weakness; always support strength. - The Bene Gesserit Azhar Book

Seek freedom and become captive of your own desires.  Seek discipline and find your liberty. - The Coda

No sweeteners will cloak some forms of bitterness.  If it tastes bitter, spit it out.  That’s what our earliest ancestors did. - The Coda

Humans are born with a susceptibility to that most persistent and debilitating disease of intellect: self-deception.  The best of all possible worlds and the worst get their dramatic coloration from it.  As nearly as we can determine, there is no natural immunity.  Constant alertness is required. - The Coda

A major concept guides the Missionaria Protectiva: Purposeful instruction of the masses.  This is firmly seated in our belief that the aim of argument should be to change the nature of truth.  In such matters, we prefer the use of power rather than force. - The Coda

The wise man molds himself–the fool lives only to die. - The Ghola Hayt

When strangers meet, great allowance should be made for differences of custom and training. - The Lady Jessica, from "Wisdom of Arrakis"

Above all else, the mentat must be a generalist, not a specialist.  It is wise to have decisions of great moment monitored by generalists.  Experts and specialists lead you quickly into chaos.  They are a source of useless nit-picking, the ferocious quibble over a comma.  The mentat-generalist, on the other hand, should bring to decision-making a healthy common sense.  He must not cut himself off from the broad sweep of what is happening in his universe.  He must remain capable of saying: ‘There’s no real mystery about this at the moment.  This is what we want now.  It may prove wrong later, but we’ll correct that when we come to it.’  The mentat-generalist must understand that anything which we can identify as our universe is merely part of a larger phenomena.  But the expert looks backward;  he looks into the narrow standards of his own specialty.  The generalist looks outward;  he looks for living principles, knowing full well that such principles change, that they develop.  It is to the characteristics of change itself that the mentat-generalist must look.  There can be no permanent catalogue of such change, no handbook of manual.  you must look at it with as few preconceptions as possible, asking yourself: ‘Now what is this thing doing?’ - The Mentat Handbook

Blindness can take many forms other than the inability to see.  Fanatics are often blinded in their thoughts.  Leaders are often blinded in their hearts. - The Orange Catholic Bible

Did you not hear that man?  Blasphemeres and idolaters!  All of you!  The religion of Muad’Dib is not Muad’Dib.  He spurns it as he spurns you!  Sand will cover this place.  Sand will cover you. - The Preacher

In my estimation, more misery has been created by reformers than by any other force in human history.  Show me someone who says, ‘Something must be done!’ and I will show you a head full of vicious intentions that have no other outlet.  What we must strive for always! is to find the natural flow and go with it. - The Reverend Mother Taraza, Conversational Record, BG File GSXXMAT9

Any path that narrows future possibilities may become a lethal trap.  Humans do not thread their way through a maze; they scan a vast horizon filled with unique opportunities. - The Spacing Guild Handbook

Most civilization is based on cowardice.  It’s so easy to civilize by teaching cowardice.  You water down the standards which would lead to bravery.  You restrain the will.  You regulate the appetites.  You fence in the horizons.  You make a law for every movement.  You deny the existence of chaos.  You teach even the children to breathe slowly.  You tame. - The Stolen Journals

The prophet is not diverted by illusions of past, present and future.  The fixity of language determines such linear distinctions.  Prophets hold a key to the lock in a language.  The mechanical image remains only an image to them.  This is not a mechanical universe.  The linear progression of events is imposed by the observer.  Cause and effect?  That’s not it at all.  The prophet utters fateful words.  You glimpse a thing ‘destined to occur.’  But the prophetic instant releases something of infinite portent and power.  The universe undergoes a ghostly shift.  Thus, the wise prophet conceals actuality behind shimmering labels.  The uninitiated then believe the prophetic language is ambiguous.  The listener distrusts the prophetic messenger.  Instinct tells you how the utterance blunts the power of such words.  The best prophets lead you up to the curtain and let you peer through for yourself. - The Stolen Journals

Has not religion claimed a patent on creation for all of these millennia? - The Tleilaxu Question, from Muad’dib Speaks

The person who takes the banal and ordinary and illuminates it in a new way can terrify.  We do not want our ideas changed.  We feel threatened by such demands.  ‘I already know the important things!’ we say.  Then the Changer comes and throws our old ideas away. - The Zensufi Master

Answers are a perilous grip on the universe.  They can appear sensible yet explain nothing. - The Zensunni Whip

You cannot manipulate a marionette with only one string. - The Zensunni Whip

Corruption wears infinite disguises. - Tleilaxu Thu-zen

Innovation and daring create heroes. Mindless adherence to outdated rules creates only politicians. - Viscount Hundro Moritani

Look inside yourself and you can see the universe. - Zensunni Aphorism

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

Man is but a pebble dropped in a pool.  And if man is but a pebble, then all his works can be no more. - Zensunni Saying

Freedom is an elusive concept. Some ment hold themselves prisoner even when they have the power to do as they please and go where they choose, while others are free in their hearts, even as shackles restrain them. - Zensunni Widsom from the Wandering

Love is the highest achievement to which any human may aspire. It is an emotion that encompasses the full depth of heart, mind, and soul. - Zensunni Wisdom from the Wandering