Frank Herbert Quotes

Quotes about:

• When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.

  Frank Herbert

  Stronger, Principles, Your Freedom

  Frank Herbert (2008). “Children of Dune”, p.174, Penguin

  20 Copy quote

• The undeserving maintain power by promoting hysteria.

  Frank Herbert

  Hysteria, Undeserving, Promoting

  Frank Herbert (2008). “God Emperor of Dune”, p.306, Penguin

  26 Copy quote

• All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities.

  Frank Herbert

  War, Government, Personality

  Frank Herbert (1987). “Chapterhouse: Dune”, p.60, Penguin

  75 Copy quote

• Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class -- whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.

  Frank Herbert

  Government, Class, Aristocracy

  Frank Herbert (2008). “Children of Dune”, p.198, Penguin

  57 Copy quote

• The best contribution one can make to humanity is to improve oneself.

  Frank Herbert

  Humanity, Contribution, Oneself

  40 Copy quote

• The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.

  Frank Herbert

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Frank Herbert (2003). “Dune”, p.35, Penguin

  115 Copy quote

• Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect all who seek it ... We should grant power over our affairs only to those who are reluctant to hold it and then only under conditions that increase that reluctance.

  Frank Herbert

  Affair, Increase, Should

  Frank Herbert (1986). “Chapterhouse: Dune”, Berkley Trade

  15 Copy quote

• The mistakes (of leaders) are amplified by the numbers who follow them without question. Charismatic leaders tend to build up followings, power structures and these power structures tend to be taken over by people who are corruptible. I don't think that the old saw about 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely' is accurate: I think power attracts the corruptible.

  Frank Herbert

  Mistake, Taken, Thinking

  16 Copy quote

• Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.

  Frank Herbert

  Men, Thinking, Machines

  Frank Herbert (2003). “Dune”, p.18, Penguin

  19 Copy quote

• Each life creates endless ripples.

  Frank Herbert

  Life, Endless, Ripple

  Frank Herbert (1987). “Chapterhouse: Dune”, p.72, Penguin

  10 Copy quote

• Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.

  Frank Herbert

  Freedom, Discipline, History

  Frank Herbert (1985). “Chapterhouse: Dune”, Putnam Publishing Group

  42 Copy quote

• 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.

  Frank Herbert

  Government, People, Drunk

  Frank Herbert (1987). “Chapterhouse: Dune”, p.60, Penguin

  42 Copy quote

• Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's execution that counts.

  Frank Herbert

  Ideas, Dimes, Dozen

  29 Copy quote

• When you think you know something: that is a most perfect barrier against learning.

  Frank Herbert

  Thinking, Perfect, You Think You Know

  Frank Herbert (2008). “God Emperor of Dune”, p.203, Penguin

  6 Copy quote

• I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me 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.

  Frank Herbert

  Inspirational, Motivational, Death

  Frank Herbert (2010). “Heretics Of Dune: The Fifth Dune Novel”, p.10, Hachette UK

  118 Copy quote

• Never attempt to reason with people who know they are right!

  Frank Herbert

  People, Reason, Knows

  Frank Herbert (2008). “God Emperor of Dune”, p.234, Penguin

  12 Copy quote

• Most believe that a satisfactory future requires a return to an idealized past, a past which never in fact existed.

  Frank Herbert

  Believe, Past, Return

  Frank Herbert (2008). “God Emperor of Dune”, p.351, Penguin

  6 Copy quote

• The gravest error a thinking person can make is to believe that one particular version of history is absolute fact. History is recorded by a series of observers, none of whom is impartial. The facts are distorted by sheer passage of time and thousands of years of humanity's dark ages, deliberate misrepresentations by religious sects, and the inevitable corruption that comes from an accumulation of careless mistakes. The wise person, then, views history as a set of lessons to be learned, choices and ramifications to be considered and discussed, and mistakes that should never again be made.

  Frank Herbert

  Wise, Religious, Mistake

  19 Copy quote

• The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.

  Frank Herbert

  Knowledge, Caring, Discovery

  Frank Herbert (2008). “God Emperor of Dune”, p.150, Penguin

  26 Copy quote

• Nature does not make mistakes. Right and wrong are human categories.

  Frank Herbert

  Inspirational, Life, Nature

  10 Copy quote

• Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.

  Frank Herbert

  Belief, Dangerous, Knowledge Is Dangerous

  Frank Herbert (2008). “Dune Messiah”, p.26, Penguin

  22 Copy quote

• Reason is the first victim of strong emotion.

  Frank Herbert

  Strong, Firsts, Emotion

  Frank Herbert (2008). “Dune Messiah”, p.20, Penguin

  16 Copy quote

• It is impossible to live in the past, difficult to live in the present and a waste to live in the future.

  Frank Herbert

  Happiness, Past, Waste

  12 Copy quote

• When politics and religion are intermingled, a people is suffused with a sense of invulnerability, and gathering speed in their forward charge, they fail to see the cliff ahead of them

  Frank Herbert

  People, Gathering, Cliffs

  46 Copy quote

• There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.

  Frank Herbert

  Real, Writing, Stories

  Interview with Willis McNelly, www.sinanvural.com. February 3, 1969.

  45 Copy quote

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