970 Quotes by Frank Herbert

It is said of Muad’Dib that once when he saw a weed trying to grow between two rocks, he moved one of the rocks. Later, when the weed was seen to be flourishing, he covered it with the remaining rock. “That was its fate,” he explained.

Dangers lurk in all systems. Systems incorporate the unexamined beliefs of their creators. Adopt a system, accept its beliefs, and you help strengthen the resistance to change.

The Zensunni approach to birth,” he said, urging her even faster, “is to wait without purpose in the state of highest tension. Do not compete with what is happening. To compete is to prepare for failure. Do not be trapped by the need to achieve anything. This way, you achieve everything.

Paradox is a pointer telling you to look beyond it. If paradoxes bother you, that betrays your deep desire for absolutes. The relativist treats a paradox merely as interesting, perhaps amusing or even, dreadful thought, educational.

You should fear me, Mother. I am the Kwisatz Haderach.” Jessica.

It’d be bad enough without the complication of a feudal trade culture which turns its back on most science.

There’s no mystery about a human life. It’s not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

Better a dry morsel and quietness therewith than a house full of sacrifice and strife.

Feints within feints within feints.