Great Throughts Treasury

"The mind goes on working no matter how we try to hold it back."

"The mind of the believer stagnates. It fails to grow outward into an unlimited, infinite universe."

"The mind imposes this framework which it calls ‘reality.’ That arbitrary framework has a tendency to be quite independent of what your senses report."

"The more control, the more that requires control. This is the road to chaos."

"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."

"The night is a tunnel, a hole into tomorrow."

"The most persistent principles in the universe are accident and error."

"The myth of progress that shields us from the terrors of an uncertain future."

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

"The one who can be many places at once."

"The people who can destroy a thing, they control it."

"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man."

"The person who takes the banal and ordinary and illuminates it in a new way can terrify. We do not want our ideas changed."

"The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it."

"The price we paid was the price men have always paid for achieving a paradise in this life – we went soft, we lost our edge."

"The only past which endures lies wordlessly within you."

"The only rule governing creativity is the act of creation itself."

"The oppressed always learned from and copied the oppressor. When the tables were turned, the stage was set for another round of revenge and violence -- roles reversed. And reversed and reversed ad nauseam."

"The past may show the right way to behave if you live in the past, Stil, but circumstances change."

"The problem of leadership is inevitably: Who will play God?"

"The proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence. On that path lies danger."

"The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth."

"The pursuit of unhappiness is an inalienable right of all humans."

"The real wealth of a planet is in its landscape, how we take part in that basic source of civilization- agriculture."

"The replacement of morality and conscience with law."

"The scarce water of Dune is an exact analog of oil scarcity. CHOAM is OPEC."

"The Senior Watchdog had her own watchwords: Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you someone who's covering mistakes. Real boats rock."

"The sleeper must awaken."

"The pitfall of Bene Gesserit training, she reminded herself, lay in the powers granted: such powers predisposed one to vanity and pride. But power deluded those who used it. One tended to believe power could overcome any barrier . . . including one's own ignorance."

"The smoke! The golden smoke! His robe whipped upward, turning him until his face was directed downward into the abyss. With his gaze on the depths, he recognized a maelstrom of boiling rapids there, the mirror of his life-precipitous currents and plunges, all movement gathering up all substance. Leto’s words wound through his mind on a path of golden smoke: Caution is the path to mediocrity. Gliding, passionless mediocrity is all that most people think they can achieve. Moneo fell freely then in the ecstasy of awareness. The universe opened for him like clear glass, everything flowing in a no Time."

"The stakes in conflict do not change. Battle determines who will control the wealth or its equivalent."

"The surest way to keep a secret is to make people believe they already know the answer."

"The thing the ecologically illiterate don't realize about an ecosystem is that it's a system. A system! A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche."

"The thing we must do intensely is be human together. People are more important than things. We must get together. The best thing humans can have going for them is each other. We have each other. We must reject everything which humiliates us. Humans are not objects of consumption. We must develop an absolute priority of humans ahead of profit — any humans ahead of any profit. Then we will survive."

"The trouble with peace is that it tends to punish mistakes instead of rewarding brilliance."

"The true warrior often understands his enemy better than he understands his friends. A dangerous pitfall if you let understanding lead to sympathy as it will naturally do when left unguided."

"The undeserving maintain power by promoting hysteria."

"The universe does not work by our rules."

"The truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to express it."

"The unclouded eye was better, no matter what it saw."

"The ultimate test ... to see the good in evil and the evil in good."

"The way the mind will lean under stress is strongly influenced by training."

"The whole theory of warfare is calculated risk, but when it comes to risking your own family, the element of calculation gets submerged in... other things."

"The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows - a wall against the wind. This is the willow's purpose."

"The worst potential competition for any organism can come from its own kind. The species consumes necessities. Growth is limited by that necessity which is present in the least amount. The least favorable condition controls the rate of growth. (Law of the Minimum)"

"The universe is unfinished, you know."

"The vision of time is broad, but when you pass through it, time becomes a narrow door."

"The waters which we spread upon the desert have become blood. Blood upon our land! Behold our desert which could"

"The value of self-government at an individual level cannot be overestimated."

"The voice of a rebeck echoed from somewhere behind him. The music echoed and echoed until it entered his head, still echoing. It suffused his body and he felt himself to be large, very large, not a child at all. And his skin was not his own."