Dune Messiah (Dune, #2)

by Frank Herbert

The author felt that heroic leaders often made mistakes . . . mistakes that were amplified by the number of followers who were held in thrall by charisma.

Among my father’s most important messages were that governments lie to protect themselves and they make incredibly stupid decisions.

“A creature who has spent his life creating one particular representation of his selfdom will die rather than become the antithesis of that representation,”

“One who rules assumes irrevocable responsibility for the ruled. You are a husbandman. This demands, at times, a selfless act of love which may only be amusing to those you rule.”

Everywhere there is peace, Paul thought. Everywhere . . . except in the heart of Muad’Dib.

“Keeping his friends and destroying his enemies.” “Isn’t that stability? People want order, this kind or some other. They sit in the prison of their hungers and see that war has become the sport of the rich. That’s a dangerous form of sophistication. It’s disorderly.”

You do not beg the sun for mercy.

He’s the bait in his own trap. He’s the servant of power and terror. Violence . . . deification is a prison enclosing him. He’ll lose . . . everything. It’ll tear him apart.”

We say of Muad’Dib that he has gone on a journey into that land where we walk without footprints.