Brian Herbert Quotes

Some say that the anticipation of a thing is better than the thing itself. In
my view, this is utter nonsense. Any fool can imagine a prize. I desire the
tangible.

In 'Sidney's Comet,' thanks to all the consumerism, all the garbage had to be put in deep space, even though we're not supposed to litter the cosmos - that was an environmental message. Although it was funny, it had an important message.

Your outrageous and reckless chaos is the only reason you are able to beat me in any strategy game," Seurat said. "It certainly has nothing to do with your innate skills.

We must face our responsibilities regardless of whether we get what we want.

It is astonishing how foolish humans can be in groups, especially when they follow their leader without question.

The narrow mind erects stubborn barriers," her mother had once told her. "But against those barriers, words are formidable weapons.

My Sihaya,' he said as he held her, 'I have loved you for five thousand years.

If we give up our humanity to fight the machines, Zufa, then Omnius has already won!

The first step in innovation is to know that a thing can be created. After that, the rest is a matter of detail.

The more tightly packed the group, the greater the need for strict social ranks and orders.

Not all accidents are what they seem. Victims do no even know why they have been chosen.

The robot responded with surprising sarcasm. I am aware of the various bodily orifices humans possess. Therefore, I invite you to take a power tool and insert it where the -

A man may fight the greatest enemy, take the longest journey, survive the most
grievous wound -- and still be helpless in the hands of the woman he loves.

We are trained to believe and not to know.

Looking closely at de Vries, he added, 'You are a very ugly man, Piter. Even with my disease, I'm still prettier than you.

Music should make the spirit soar, take the breath away, touch the soul. Your work was just ... pleasant tones, adequately performed.

As a human being, I was born on the brink of personal destruction, and I have spent my life dancing along the edge of that cliff.

Brilliant, Piter! I'm glad I didn't execute you all those times when you were so annoying.'
'So am I,' de Vries said.

Do you know about the horrors during the Time of Titans? Or the Hrethgir Rebellions?" "I've read my father's memoirs in great detail - " "I don't mean Agamemnon's propaganda. Have you learned the real history?

Look inside yourself and you can see the universe.

So I have failed you?" "Not at all. Your human frailties are not your fault.

There's so much overlapping in science fiction.

Some say it is better to rule in hell than serve in heaven. That is a defeatist attitude. I intend to rule everywhere, not just in Hell.
- General Agamemnon
New Memoirs

In the heat of battle, heroes emerge, sometimes from the most unlikely of sources.

A winner has more skills than a loser," Vor said, "no matter how you define the competition.

A requirement of creativity is that it contributes to change. Creativity keeps the creator alive. - FRANK HERBERT, unpublished notes

Though death will cancel it, life in this world is a glorious thing.

Wounds make better lessons than lectures.

Arrakis is ours because we have taken it," Selim announced. "We have learned to survive under the harshest circumstances, without depending upon the benevolence of strangers or trade with offworld intruders.

But the Butlerians turn fear into violence and panic into a weapon. By creating imaginary problems and raising the specter of nonexistent enemies, they transform common people into a wild herd that destroys everything they do not understand.

My grandfather was a police officer. He taught Dad about lie detectors and police interrogation methods, so Dad got this old World War II lie detector and used it on us regularly. He was obsessed with the truth.

The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The
willingness to learn is a choice.

Dune Messiah is the most misunderstood of Frank Herbert's novels. The reasons for this are as fascinating and complex as the renowned author himself.

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.

Any school for free citizens must begin by teaching distrust, not trust. It must teach questioning, not acceptance of stock answers.

The man who sees an opportunity and does nothing is asleep with his eyes open.

An ignorant friend is worse than a learned foe.

I'll keep writing 'Dune' books as long as my mother's spirit continues to support the project.

Religion is the emulation of the adult by the child. Religion is the
encystment of past beliefs: mythology, which is guesswork, the hidden
assumptions of trust in the universe, those pronouncements which men have made
in search of personal power ... all mingled with shreds of enlightenment.
And always the ultimate unspoken commandment is "Thou shalt not question!" But
we do anyway. We break that commandment as a matter of course. The work to
which we have set ourselves is the liberating of the imagination, the
harnessing of imagination to humankind's deepest sense of creativity.

The only guarantee in life is death, and the only guarantee in death is its shocking unpredictability.

In Dune and Dune Messiah, he [Frank Herbert] was cautioning against pride and overconfidence, that form of narcissism described in Greek tragedies that invariably led to the great fall.

Let the future remain uncertain, for that is the canvas to receive our desires.

Who is truly anyone? Every person is illusion to some degree.

When we try to conceal our innermost drives, our entire being screams betrayal.

Simplicity is the most difficult of all concepts.

Address the solvable first, instructs the father by way of teaching his son crisis management. That way, he counsels, there is less distraction to tackle more daunting issues.

Think of what this planet has done to us. Dune took my Duke and my son and shattered all our hopes and dreams as a family. It swallows people.

There is no man so blind as one who has made up his mind.

Do you not have tribes? Rivalries?"
"Of course," said Taref. "All of us do. I am the son of a Naib."
"The third son of a Naib." Lillis said.
"Because of my two older brothers, I will never rule the tribe.

My child, human love is an infinite resource. No matter how many times it is expended, whether stolen or given away, love can grow again - like a flower from a bulb - and fill your heart.

We are indeed miserable, my friends, but we don't have to be dismal about it.

Once you have explored a fear, it becomes less terrifying. Part of courage comes from extending our knowledge.

Love is the highest achievement to which any human may aspire. It is an emotion that encompasses the full depth of heart, mind, and soul.

Savant, doesn't it strike you as somewhat ... hypocritical that we fight to keep humans free from the domination of machines, while at the same time some of our own League Worlds use slaves?

All persons are contained within a single individual, just as all time is in a moment, and the entire universe is in a grain of sand.

Written words, if carefully laid down, represent the civilized ideal of reason.

As mortal humans we are born with a death sentence anyway, so what difference does a little poison make? Why not take a chance you will survive the ordeal and make something significant of your life? ... p330

Anyone who searches for the meaning of life is on a fool's journey. Human life has no redeeming purpose or value. - the cymek GENERAL AGAMEMNON, A Time for Titans

Dreams are as simple or as complicated as the dreamer. - LIET-KYNES,

In preservation canisters, so they could be installed into any cymek walker. Now

Each of us influences the actions of the people we know. - XAVIER HARKONNEN,

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.

I didn't actually get along with my dad when I was growing up, so by the time I was in my 20s, I didn't think I was going to be a writer.

Fear invites aggression - do not show it to a predator.

Seurat's flowmetal face gleamed in the lights from his update ship's cockpit. Then I regret having been such an excellent teacher.

Her face looked like a fruit from which all the juice had been sucked.

Aristotle raped reason. He implanted in the dominant schools of philosophy the attractive belief that there can be discrete separation between mind and body. This led quite naturally to corollary delusions such as the one that power can be understood without applying it, or that joy is totally removable from unhappiness, that peace can exist in the total absence of war, or that life can be understood without death.
- ERASMUS, Corrin Notes

I will take their ridiculous peace and shove it down their cold metal throats.

The greatest relevancy can become irrelevant in the space of a heartbeat.

Discovery is dangerous ... but so is life. A man unwilling to take risk is
doomed never to learn, never to grow, never to live.

You carve wounds upon my flesh and write there in salt!

The greatest and most important problems of life cannot be solved. They can
only be outgrown.

No one has yet determined the power of the human species ... what it may
perform by instinct, and what it may accomplish with rational determination.

Even the poorest House can be rich in loyalty. Allegiance that must be purchased by bribes or wages is hollow and flawed, and could break at the worst possible moment. Allegiance that comes from the heart, though, is stronger than adamantium and more valuable than purest melange.

Even the most complex math can be broken into a sequence of trivial steps. Each of these slaves has been trained to complete specific equations in an assembly-line fashion. When taken together, this collective human mind is capable of remarkable feats. Holtzman surveyed the room as if he expected his solvers to give him a resounding cheer. Instead, they studied their work with heavy-lidded eyes, moving through equation after equation with no comprehension of reasons or larger pictures.

Freedom is an elusive concept. Some men hold themselves prisoner even when they have the power to do as they please and go where they choose, while others are free in their hearts, even as shackles restrain them.

My wife noticed that I wrote really good complaint letters about faulty products and that I could get anything I wanted out of these big corporations, and she said that I was a good writer and that I should go to my dad and ask him for help.

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

Life is filled with tests, one after another, and if you don't recognize them, you are certain to fail the most important ones.

The revolutionary environmentalists twist science to get what they want, saying they're using the "best available science" to determine public policy, when in fact these are code words for cherry picking from a repertoire of biased science studies. Arguing with the Greenies' faulty science is like shouting into the wind, because they will disregard or minimize evidence that disputes any position they are trying to assert. Your points will be ignored, and you will be demonized.

The expectations of civilized society should afford all the protection a person needs. But that armor is rendered as thin as a tissue when one is dealing with the uncivilized. -Bene Gesserit Archives

I intend to create a new work of art, all my own. A still life, of sorts. You three will be vital parts of the process. Rejoice in your good fortune." In the sterile environment of the laboratory, with the cold assistance of his personal robot guards, Erasmus proceeded to vivisect the trio of victims, oblivious to their screams. "I want to get to the heart of the matter," he quipped, "the lifeblood of it.

If you surrender, you have already lost. If you refuse to give up, though, no
matter the odds against you, at least you have succeeded in trying.

Jool Noret, we admire you. You are the scourge of Omnius." "I am merely doing my job.

Heroic leaders often made mistakes ... mistakes that were amplified by the number of followers who were held in thrall by charisma. (Introduction to Dune Messiah)

No person can ever know everything that is in the heart of another. We are
all Face Dancers in our souls.

Weapons come in an infinite variety of shapes and designs. Some look exactly like people.

It's so much more interesting to study a ... damaged world. I find it difficult to learn anything in a place that's too civilized.

Would it ... would it be possible for me to speak with them?" "No," the secondary said. In his exalted position, Iblis Ginjo was unaccustomed to hearing such a response.

Just repeating a statement often and with great vehemence does not make it a fact, and no amount of repetition can make a rational person believe it.

Norma looked at him, puzzled. "Someone else to do the mathematics?"
"Of course!" Holtzman brushed iron-gray hair away from his face and adjusted his white robe. "You're an *idea* person, like me. We want you to develop concepts, not bother with full-fledged implementation. You should not waste time performing tedious arithmetic. Any halfway-trained person can do that. It's what slaves are for.