Quote collection
427 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Anything outside yourself, this you can see and apply your logic to it. But it's a human trait that when we encounter personal problems, these things most deeply personal are the most difficult to bring out for our logic to scan. We tend to flounder around, blaming everything but the actual, deep-seated thing that's really chewing on us."
"The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows - a wall against the wind."
"When religion and politics ride in the same cart, the whirlwind follows."
"Too much knowledge never makes for simple decisions."
"There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man - with human flesh."
"Here lies a toppled god. His fall was not a small one. We did but build his pedestal, A narrow and a tall one."
"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."
"It is impossible to live in the past, difficult to live in the present and a waste to live in the future."
"Truth suffers from too much analysis."
"Most lives are a flight from selfhood. Most prefer the truths of the stable. You stick your head into the stanchions and munch contentedly until you die. Others use you for their purposes. Not once do you look outside the stable to lift your head and be your own creature."
"Demagogues are so easy to identify. They gesture a lot and speak with pulpit rhythms, using words that ring of religious fervour and god-fearing sincerity. Sincerity with nothing behind it takes so much practice. The practice can always be detected. Repetition. Great attempts to keep your attention on words."
"Life - all life - is in the service of life. Necessary nutrients are made available to life by life in greater and greater richness as the diversity of life increases. The entire landscape comes alive, filled with relationships and relationships within relationships."
"Confine yourself to observing and you always miss the point of your 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 - Chapterhouse: Dune"
"Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government?"
"When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong - faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it's to late."
"The future remains uncertain and so it should, for it is the canvas upon which we paint our desires. Thus always the human condition faces a beautifully empty canvas. We possess only this moment in which to dedicate ourselves continuously to the sacred presence which we share and create."
"What I'm saying in my books boils down to this: Mine religion for what is good and avoid what is deleterious. Don't condemn people who need it. Be very careful when that need becomes fanatical."
"The gift of words is the gift of deception and illusion."
"This wise man observed that wealth is a tool of freedom. But the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery."
"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?"