House Corrino Quotes

“The first step in innovation is to know that a thing can be created. After that, the rest is a matter of detail.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“Simplicity is the most difficult of all concepts.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“Any school for free citizens must begin by teaching distrust, not trust. It must teach questioning, not acceptance of stock answers.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“When we try to conceal our innermost drives, our entire being screams betrayal.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“We are trained to believe and not to know.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“We could be dreaming all the time, but we do not perceive those dreams while we are awake because consciousness (like the sun obscuring stars during the day) is much too brilliant to allow the unconscious content so much definition.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“Humans are different in private than in the presence of others. While the private persona merges into the social persona in varying degrees, the union is never complete. Something is always held back.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“Once you have explored a fear, it becomes less terrifying. Part of courage comes from extending our knowledge.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“A man cannot drink from a mirage, but he can drown in it.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“...the Baron felt cold inside, certain that even the most careful manipulations would not stand up to the close scrutiny of these demonic auditors.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“Those who are half alive demand what is missing in them, but deny it when it is presented to them, and they fear the proof of their own insufficiency.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“We create our own future by our own beliefs, which control our actions. A strong enough belief system, a sufficiently powerful conviction, can make anything happen. This is how we create our consensus reality, including our gods.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“If stated reasons don’t sit well with your conscience or stand the test of logic, look for deeper motivations.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“Rules are for old men who prefer to walk in the wheel ruts of history,”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“It is not easy for some men to know they have done evil, for reasoning and honor are often clouded by pride.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“Any training school for free citizens must begin by teaching distrust, not trust. It must teach questioning, not acceptance of stock answers.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“We learn from one another and teach one another. That is what life is all about. For as we learn, we advance as a species. We learn until we die.”
― Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson, House Corrino

“I am their Emperor, and they will do as I say.”
― Brian Herbert, Dune: House Corrino

“It seemed to Jessica that love was something a machine could not experience, and humans had defeated thinking machines in the Butlerian Jihad, millennia ago. But if humans were the victors, why did this remnant of non-humanity—the savagery of the gom jabbar—thrive in one of the Great Schools? Savagery was as much a part of the human psyche as love. One could not exist without the other.”
― Brian Herbert, Dune: House Corrino

“Dune is like a great engine that we are oiling and repairing. One day this world will serve us in new and wondrous ways, just as we will continue to honor and serve it. My Fremen brothers, we are part of the ecosystem ourselves, an integral part. We occupy our own essential niche.”
― Brian Herbert, Dune: House Corrino

“In a society where hard data is uncertain at best, one must be careful to manipulate the truth. Appearance becomes reality. Perception becomes fact. Use this to your advantage. Empress Herade, A Primer on the Finer Points of Culture in the Imperium”
― Brian Herbert, Dune: House Corrino

“Rigorously independent, the Fremen did not consider themselves true Imperial subjects. They viewed the Harkonnens as interlopers, temporary occupants who would be cast aside one day, in favor of another ruling House. In time, the Fremen themselves would rule here. Their legends foretold this.”
― Brian Herbert, Dune: House Corrino

“Following two generations of chaos, when mankind finally overcame the insidious control of machines, a new concept emerged: “Man may not be replaced.” Precepts of the Butlerian Jihad”
― Brian Herbert, Dune: House Corrino

“The heartbeat steadied, their minds opened … and the flow began, like a torrent through an open dam. Lobia poured her life into Anirul, transferring memories, aspects of personality, every bit of data contained in her long life. One day, Anirul herself would pass the information to another, younger Sister. In this manner, the Sisterhood’s collective memory was amassed and made potentially available to all Bene Gesserit.”
― Brian Herbert, Dune: House Corrino

“The axis of spin for the planet Arrakis is at right angles to the radius of its orbit. The world itself is not a globe, but more a spinning top somewhat fat at the equator and concave toward the poles. There is a sense that this may be artificial, the product of some ancient artifice. Report of the Third Imperial Commission on Arrakis”
― Brian Herbert, Dune: House Corrino

“There are no facts—only observational postulates in an endlessly regenerative hodgepodge of predictions. Consensus reality requires a fixed frame of reference. In a multi-level, infinite universe, there can be no fixity; thus, no absolute consensus reality. In a relativistic universe, it appears impossible to test the reliability of any expert by requiring him to agree with another expert. Both can be correct, each in his own inertial system. Bene Gesserit Azhar Book”
― Brian Herbert, Dune: House Corrino

“Secrets do not diminish when they are spread among many ears.”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“It is difficult to make power lovable—this is the dilemma of all governments. —PADISHAH EMPEROR HASSIK III, private Kaitain journals”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“For long lifetimes marked by the hulks of ruined planets, man was a geological and ecological force without knowing it, with little awareness of his own strength. — PARDOT KYNES, The Long”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino

“Every man has the same final destination: death at the end of life’s road. But the path we travel makes all the difference. Some of us have maps and goals. Others are just lost. — PRINCE RHOMBUR VERNIUS,”
― Brian Herbert, House Corrino