Great Throughts Treasury

"In the drug, these people gain a view of that sea."

"In the view of Infinity, any defined long-term is short-term."

"In the wrong hands monolithic centralized power is a dangerous and volatile instrument. And your hands are the right ones?"

"Incomplete suppression of trade in any commodity always increases the profits of the tradesmen, especially the profits of the senior distributors. His voice was warningly hesitant. That is the fallacy of thinking you can control unwanted narcotics by stopping them at your borders."

"Instincts and memories of all types... even Archives-none of these things spoke for themselves except by compelling intrusions. None carried weight until formulated into a living consciousness. But whoever produced the formulation tipped the scales. All order is arbitrary... There is no reality. Only our own order imposed on everything."

"Infinity? It attracts us like a floodlight in the night."

"In time, the men gave the thought to machines in the hope that it would deliver them. But only permitted other men with machines to enslave them"

"Irreverence is a most necessary ingredient of religion. Not to speak of its importance in philosophy. Irreverence is the only way left to us for testing our universe."

"Intelligence takes chance with limited data in an arena where mistakes are not only possible but also necessary."

"Is it possible this triviality is a code of some sort? The Brain wondered. But how could it be ... unless there's more to these emotional inconsequentials and this talk of a God than appears on the surface?"

"Isn't it odd how we misunderstand the hidden unity of kindness and cruelty?"

"It has occurred to me more than once that holy boredom is good and sufficient reason for the invention of free will."

"It is a wise man that does know the contented man is never poor, whilst the discontented man is never rich."

"It could be only the adab, the demanding memory that comes upon you of itself. She gave herself up to it, allowing the words to flow from her."

"It became very clear to me that perception is in some way culturally conditioned and in different societies functions in different ways."

"It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion."

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of saphoo that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion."

"It is difficult to live in the present, pointless to live in the future and impossible to live in the past."

"It is said that there is a principle of conflict which originated with the single cell and has never deteriorated."

"It is not the present which influences the future, thou fool, but the future which forms the present. You have it all backward. Since the future is set, an unfolding of events which will assure that future is fixed and inevitable."

"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."

"It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson."

"It takes a pretty dull policeman to miss the fact that the position of authority is the most prosperous criminal position available."

"It wasn’t the kind of answer he'd expected — too subtly penetrating and leaving too much uncommitted. He reminded himself that it was difficult to control uncommitted people. Once a man had invested his energies, he could be twisted and turned at will... but if the man held back, conserved those energies..."

"It was another of the essential ingredients that she felt her son needed: people with a goal. Such people would be easy to imbue with fervor and fanaticism. They could be wielded like a sword to win back Paul’s place for him."

"It was mostly sweet, he whispered, and you were the sweetest of all."

"It’s easier to be terrified by an enemy you admire."

"Jessica stopped beside him: ‘What delicious abandon in the sleep of a child.’ He spoke mechanically: ‘If only adults could relax like that.’ ‘Yes.’ ‘When do we lose it?’ He murmured… ‘We do indeed lose something,’ she said."

"Journalism is the entertainment business."

"Juries are not popular with legalists. Juries oppose the law. They can ignore judges."

"Justice belongs to those who claim it, but let the claimant beware lest he create new injustice by his claim and thus set the bloody pendulum of revenge into its inexorable motion."

"Justice required resort to law and that could be a fickle mistress, subject always to the whims and prejudices of those who administered the laws."

"It's a beautiful morning, Sire, the guard said. Yes, it is. The Duke nodded, thinking: Perhaps this planet could grow on one. Perhaps it could be a good home for my son. Then he saw the human figures moving into the flower fields, sweeping with them strange scythe-like devices--dew gatherers. Water so precious here that even the dew must be collected. And it could be a hideous place, the Duke thought."

"It's rooted in the fears to which all men are heir and, thus, deserves sympathy, not censure or laughter. The dream may be out of touch with history, but it's a good dream, and it doesn't appear to have been used to bilk gullible widows out of their savings. Never mind that we have a consistent record of slaughtering our messiahs. Look beyond the wacky arguments to the motivation — that sense of brotherhood which is all that has ever saved mankind from going over the brink."

"It's easier to be terrified by an enemy you admire."

"I've always prided myself on seeing things the way they truly are. That's the curse of being a Mentat. You can't stop analyzing your data."

"Knowing where the trap is-- that's the first step in evading it."

"Knowledge does not suppress feelings."

"Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty."

"Law always chooses sides on the basis of enforcement power. Morality and legal niceties have little to do with it when the real question is: Who has the clout?"

"Law is the ultimate science."

"Justice? Who asks for justice. We make our own justice. We make it here on Arrakis - win or die. Let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms and the freedom to use them."

"Leave absolute knowledge of the future to those moments of deja vu which any human may experience."

"Let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms and the freedom to use them."

"Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of history have based their job security."

"Learning a language represents training in the delusions of that language."

"Life is a game whose rules you learn if you leap into it and play it to the hilt. Otherwise, you are caught off balance, continually surprised by the shifting play. Non-players often whine and complain that luck always passes them by. They refuse to see that they can create some of their own luck."

"Leto turned a hard stare at Kynes. And Kynes, returning the stare, found himself troubled by a fact he had observed here: This Duke was concerned more over the men than he was over the spice. He risked his own life, and that of his son to save the men. He passed off the loss of a spice crawler with a gesture. The threat to men's lives had him in a rage. A leader such as that would command fanatic loyalty. He would be difficult to defeat. Against his own will and all previous judgments, Kynes admitted to himself: I like this Duke."

"Life cannot find reasons to sustain it, cannot be a source of decent mutual regard, unless each of us resolves to breathe such qualities into it."

"Life exists immersed in a sea of unconsciousness, he reminded himself."