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He taught a balanced way of life, a philosophy with which a human can meet problems arising from an ever-changing universe. He said humankind is still evolving, in a process which will never end. He said this evolution moves on changing principles which are known only to eternity. How can corrupted reasoning play with such an essence?
Failure to make a decision was in itself a decision—he knew this.
“I pity her,” Ghanima said. “The lure of it must’ve been subtle and insidious, creeping up on her until . . .”
“Among the responsibilities of command is the necessity to punish . . . but only when the victim demands it.”
“Welcome home, My Lady. It’s always a pleasure to see direct and effective action.”
one observes the survivors and learns from them.”
When we try to conceal our innermost drives, the entire being screams betrayal.
Why do I so often greet the night out here? he asked himself.
“I don’t like the things I know I’ll do,” he said.
“I’ve already set this course in motion, My Lady.”
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the sand; and he had two horns like a lamb, but his mouth was fanged and fiery as the dragon and his body shimmered and burned with great heat while it did hiss like the serpent.
“Shall I, then, fall on my knife, or will you take care of that, ahhh, detail?”
I hear the wind blowing across the desert and I see the moons of a winter night rising like great ships in the void. To them I make my vow: I will be resolute and make an art of government; I will balance my inherited past and become a perfect storehouse of my relic memories. And I will be known for kindliness more than for knowledge. My face will shine down the corridors of time for as long as humans exist.
She added: “And, of course, I throw in the gift of your life upon which, I presume, you place an even more inordinate value.”
Would that I had such a barrier within my mind, she thought.
“The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth.”
A victory is useless unless it reflects your deepest wishes.
These are illusions of popular history which a successful religion must promote: Evil men never prosper; only the brave deserve the fair; honesty is the best policy; actions speak louder than words; virtue always triumphs; a good deed is its own reward; any bad human can be reformed; religious talismans protect one from demon possession; only females understand the ancient mysteries; the rich are doomed to unhappiness . . .
A sophisticated human can become primitive. What this really means is that the human’s way of life changes. Old values change, become linked to the landscape with its plants and animals. This new existence requires a working knowledge of those multiplex and cross-linked events usually referred to as nature. It requires a measure of respect for the inertial power within such natural systems. When a human gains this working knowledge and respect, that is called “being primitive.” The converse, of course, is equally true: the primitive can become sophisticated, but not without accepting dreadful
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Those who sought the future hoped to gain the winning gamble on tomorrow’s race. Instead they found themselves trapped into a lifetime whose every heartbeat and anguished wail was known.
“The joy of living, its beauty is all bound up in the fact that life can surprise you,” he said.
“Most deadly errors arise from obsolete assumptions,” Ghanima said.
“If you believe that, you believe we can walk in mud and leave no tracks,” he said.
“Advice, Prince, is a dangerous commodity. But I will venture a few words which you may take as advice or in any other way which pleases you.”
“You’ve given no thought to the kind of society you might prefer,” The Preacher said. “You do not consider the hopes of your subjects. Even the form of the Imperium which you seek has little shape in your imaginings.” He turned his masked face toward Tyekanik. “Your eye is upon the power, not upon its subtle uses and its perils. Your future is filled, thus, with manifest unknowns: with arguing women, with coughs and windy days. How can you create an epoch when you cannot see every detail? Your tough mind will not serve you. This is where you are weak.”
“Your one unbridled response,” he’d called that chewing of the lip. “It tells me that you’re disturbed, and I must kiss those lips to still their fluttering.”
“Ignorance has its advantages. A universe of surprises is what I pray for!”
He said: “Some actions have an end but no beginning; some begin but do not end. It all depends upon where the observer is standing.”
Atrocity is recognized as such by victim and perpetrator alike, by all who learn about it at whatever remove. Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity. It is self-perpetuating upon itself—a barbarous form of incest. Whoever commits atrocity also commits those future atrocities thus bred.
The only permanence was fluid. Change was all that mattered.
“A large populace held in check by a small but powerful force is quite a common situation in our universe. And we know the major conditions wherein this large populace may turn upon its keepers— “One: When they find a leader. This is the most volatile threat to the powerful; they must retain control of leaders. “Two: When the populace recognizes its chains. Keep the populace blind and unquestioning. “Three: When the populace perceives a hope of escape from bondage. They must never even believe that escape is possible!”
“What idle speculation is this?”
Once here in the rocks, the night had taken on its black stillness. He sympathized with Stilgar’s daylight fears. Black was a single thing even when it contained boiling terrors. Light could be many things. Night held its fear smells and its things which came with slithering sounds. Dimensions separated in the night, everything amplified—thorns sharper, blades more cutting. But terrors of the day could be worse.
‘Here I am; here I remain.’”
“For proper government, the tribe must have ways to choose men whose lives reflect the way a government should behave.”
“The past may show the right way to behave if you live in the past, Stil, but circumstances change.”
A Fremen dies when he is too long from the desert; this we call “the water sickness.”
And he thought: One must cast off old agonies as a snake casts off its skin—only to grow a new set and accept all of their limitations.
“He’s her lover—in his dreams if not in fact.”
If one could not depend upon tradition, then where was the rock upon which to anchor his life?
“To suspect your own mortality is to know the beginning of terror; to learn irrefutably that you are mortal is to know the end of terror.”
When he thought of the color red, he did not think of flowers but of blood.
Allegiance, once changed, could change again.
The Guild will live up to its basic rule: Never Govern. They’re a parasitic growth, and they know it. They won’t do anything to kill the organism which keeps them alive.”
“We never get far from wealth and all of its masks when we deal with power,” Irulan drawled.
Far better, though, that she die a martyr than live to be discredited and hounded into a sandy grave.
Good government never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.
Our civilization could well die of indifference within it before succumbing to external attack.
One of the first lessons of the Sisterhood had been to reserve an attitude of questioning distrust for anything which came in the guise of logic.
“My Lady. It occurred to me that you might not’ve heard the latest exploit of The Preacher.”
