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| by ~pollux01 via deviantART |
DUNE - 1965
Hope clouds observation
- Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
That which submits rules. ... 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.
- Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience
- Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.
- The First Law of Mentat
Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test that it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain.
- from Muab'Dib: Family Commentaries by the Princess Irulan
There should be a science of discontent. People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.
- from Collected Sayings of Muab'Dib by the Princess Irulan
What do you despise? By this you are truly known.
- from Manual of Muad'Dib by the Princess Irulan.
The mind can go either direction under stress- toward positive or toward negative: on or off. Think of it as a spectrum whose extremes are unconsciousness at the negative end and hyperconsciousness at the positive end. The way the mind will lean under stress is strongly influenced by training.
- Bene Gesserit Axiom
To save one from a mistake is a gift of paradise.
- Stilgar
Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.
- from The Sayings of Muad'Dib by the Princess Irulan
How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him.
- The Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib by the Princess Irulan
DUNE MESSIAH - 1969
Do not be trapped by the need to achieve anything. This way, you achieve everything.
- Hayt
I have said: "Blow out the lamp! Day is here!" And you keep saying: "Give me a lamp so I can find the day."
- Bijaz
Often I must speak other than I think. That is called diplomacy.
- Stilgar
You do not take from this universe. It grants you what it will.
- Paul Muab'Dib
When a creature has developed into one thing, he will choose death rather than change into his opposite.
- Scytale
Ahh, but the dice cannot read their own spots.
- Bijaz
Cynicism! That, no doubt is a greater crime than heresy.
- Excerpts from the Death Interview with Bronso of IX
Reason is the first victim of strong emotion.
- Scytale
Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.
- Scytale
An offer is only as good as the real thing it buys.
- Hayt
CHILDREN OF DUNE - 1976
Above all else, the mentat must be a generalist, not a specialist. It is wise to have decisions of great moment monitored by generalists. Experts and specialists lead you quickly into chaos. They are a source of useless nit-picking, the ferocious quibble over a comma. The mentat-generalist, on the other hand, should bring to decision-making a healthy common sense. He must not cut himself off from the broad sweep of what is happening in his universe. He must remain capable of saying: "There's no real mystery about this at the moment. This is what we want now. It may prove wrong later, but we'll correct that when we come to it." The mentat-generalist must understand that anything which we can identify as our universe is merely a part of larger phenomena. But the expert looks backward; he looks into the narrow standards of his own specialty. The generalist looks outward; he looks for living principles, knowing full well that such principles change, that they develop. It is to the characteristics of change itself that the mentat-generalist must look. There can be no permanent catalogue of such change, no handbook or manual. You must look at it with as few preconceptions as possible, asking yourself: "Now what is this thing doing?"
- The Mentat Handbook
Peace demands solutions, but we never reach living solutions; we only work toward them. A fixed solution is, by definition, a dead solution. The trouble with peace is that it tends to punish mistakes instead of rewarding brilliance.
- The Words of My Father: an account of Muad'Dib reconstruction by Harq al-Ada
Any path that narrows future possibilities may become a lethal trap. Humans are not threading their way through a maze; they scan a vast horizon filled with unique opportunities. The narrowing viewpoint of the maze should appeal only to creatures with their noses buried in the sand.
- The Spacing Guild Handbook
Some actions have an end but no beginning; some begin but do not end. It all depends upon where the observer is standing.
- Leto
Not knowing what you said, you said it.
- Leto
It is said that the only fear we cannot correct is the fear of our own mistakes.
- Stilgar
Often there's no need to tear off an arm to remove a splinter.
- Stilgar
All proofs inevitably lead to propositions which have no proof! All things are known because we want to believe in them.
- The Lady Jessica
[End Dune Quoting Mode]
I'm on leave tonight.
Happy LGBT Pride.
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