24 quotes found
“One moment of incompetence can be fatal.”
“What the eyes had seen could not be erased.”
“CHOAM is business and business follows profits.”
“Every man carries his own past with him," Hayt said.”
“Cynicism! That, no doubt is a greater crime than heresy.”
“Reason is the first victim of strong emotion," Scytale murmured.”
“The flesh surrenders itself. Eternity takes back its own. Our bodies stirred these waters briefly, danced with a certain intoxication before the love of life and self, dealt with a few strange idea...”
“Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual. -Words of Muad'dib by Princess Iru...”
“Constitutions become the ultimate tyranny," Paul said. "Theyre organized power on such a scale as to be overwhelming. The constitution is social power mobilized and it has no conscience. It can cru...”
“Deceit is a tool of statecraft," Irulan agreed."There are limits to power, as those who put their hopes in a constitution always discover," Paul said.”
“They are not mad. They're trained to believe, not to know. Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.”
“Some say," Scytale said, "that people cling to Imperial leadership because space is infinite. They feel lonely without a unifying symbol. For a lonely people, the Emperor is a definite place. They ...”
“I don't speak, I operate a machine called language. It creaks and groans, but is mine own.”
“The convoluted wording of legalisms grew up around the necessity to hide from ourselves the violence we intend toward each other. Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him...”
“Once . . . long ago, hed thought of himself as an inventor of government. But the invention had fallen into old patterns. It was like some hideous contrivance with plastic memory. Shape it any way ...”
“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. The law ca...”
“Government cannot be religious and self-assertive at the same time. Religious experience needs a spontaneity which laws inevitably suppress. And you cannot govern without laws. Your laws eventually...”
“I have said: "Blow out the lamp! Day is here!" And you keep saying: "Give me a lamp so I can find the day.”
“What's law? Control? Law filters chaos and what drips through? Serenity? Law -- our highest ideal and our basest nature. Don't look too closely at the law. Do, and you'll find the rationalized inte...”
“Wild Fremen said it well: "Four things cannot be hidden -- love, smoke, a pillar of fire and a man striding across the open bled.”
“You do not beg the sun for mercy.-Maud'dib's Travail from The Stilgar Commentary”