"Most believe that a satisfactory future requires a return to an idealized past, a past which never in fact existed."
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Quote collection
Frank Herbert quotes (page 14 of 22)
427 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"The clear and safe path leads evermore into stagnation"
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"When you think to take determination of your fate into your own hands, that is the moment you can be crushed. Be cautious."
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"You've heard of animals chewing off a leg to escape a trap? There's an animal kind of trick. A human would remain in the trap, endure the pain, feigning death that he might kill the trapper and remove a threat to his kind."
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"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."
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"If there is a difference between what is said and what is done, only a fool believes what was said."
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"The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it."
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"Justice? Who asks for justice? We make our own justice ... Let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms and the freedom to use them."
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"When strangers meet, great allowance should be made for differences of custom and training."
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"Argument closes off the doors of the senses. It always masks violence. Continued too long, argument always leads to violence."
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"For now is my grief heavier than the sands of the seas, she thought. This world has emptied me of all but the oldest purpose: tomorrow's life."
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"A storm is coming; our storm. Emperor - we come for you!"
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"I have no fear, for fear is the little death that kills me over and over. Without fear, I die but once."
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"We tend to become like the worst in those we oppose."
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"Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife - chopping off what's incomplete and saying: "Now it's complete because it's ended here.""
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"... motivating people, forcing them to your will, gives you a cynical attitude toward humanity. It degrades everything it touches."
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"Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity."
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"Order generally was a product of human activity. Chaos existed as a raw material from which to create order."
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"Law of the Minimum: "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 favourable condition controls the rate of growth.""
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"There exists a limit to the force even the most powerful may apply without destroying themselves. Judging this limit is the true artistry of government. Misuse of power is the fatal sin."
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