970 Quotes by Frank Herbert

They’re trained to believe, not to know. Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.

In politics, the tripod is he most unstable of all structures. It’s be bad enough without the complication of a feudal trade culture which turns its back on most science.

The oracle cannot chance upon what it cannot understand.

Hittite law emphasized restitution rather than revenge. Humankind lost a certain useful practicality when it chose the other Semitic response – never to forgive and never to forget.

And that day dawned when Arrakis lay at the hub of the universe with the wheel poised to spin.

Don’t sit with your back to any doors.

Be prepared to appreciate what you meet.

That is one of the Law’s purposes, of course: to test the qualities of those who choose to employ it.

But that’s the function I expect of you, cousin. It’s why I chose you. I’ll make it official. I will give you a new name. From this moment, you’ll be called Breaking of the Habit, which in our tongue is Harq al-Ada. Come, cousin, don’t be obtuse. My mother taught you well. Give me your Sardaukar.