Quotes from Frank Herbert

God created Arrakis to train the faithful.

I wrote the Dune series because I had this idea that charismatic leaders ought to come with a warning label on their forehead: May be dangerous to your health. One of the most dangerous presidents we had in this century was John Kennedy because people said Yes Sir Mr. Charismatic Leader what do we do next? and we wound up in Vietnam. And I think probably the most valuable president of this century was Richard Nixon. Because he taught us to distrust government and he did it by example.

I never thought it would be easy to serve God, she said. I just didn't think it would be this hard.

When law and duty are one, united by religion, you never become fully conscious, fully aware of yourself. You are always a little less than an individual.

Chance is the nature of our universe. […] madness represents a chaotic reservoir of surprises. Some surprises can be valuable.

Sad? Nonsense! Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place.

There's no mystery about a human life. It's not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

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

Are you already training my replacement? Piter demanded. Replace you? Why, Piter, where could I find another Mentat with your cunning and venom? The same place you found me, Baron. Perhaps I should at that, the Baron mused. You do seem a bit unstable lately. And the spice you eat! Are my pleasures too expensive, Baron? Do you object to them? My dear Piter, your pleasures are what tie you to me. How could I object to that?

He learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult.

The abyss remains. It is pregnant with all the things yet to be. Ah, what gentle violence!

I am a collection of the obsolete, a relic of the damned, of the lost and strayed. I am the waylaid pieces of history which sank out of sight in all of our pasts. Such an accumulation of riffraff has never before been imagined.