Brian Herbert > Quotes

“The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The
willingness to learn is a choice.”
― Brian Herbert, House Harkonnen

“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”
― Brian Herbert, The Butlerian Jihad

“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

“My Sihaya,’ he said as he held her, ‘I have loved you for five thousand years.”
― Brian Herbert, Sandworms of Dune

“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”
― Brian Herbert, The Battle of Corrin

“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.”
― Brian Herbert, House Harkonnen

“How will I be remembered by my children? This is the true measure of a man.”
― Brian Herbert, House Harkonnen

“Any true student must realize that History has no beginning. Regardless of where a story starts, there are always earlier heroes and earlier tragedies.”
― Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson, The Butlerian Jihad

“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.”
― Brian Herbert, Kevin Anderson, Mentats of Dune

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

“Look inside yourself and you can see the universe.”
― Brian Herbert, House Harkonnen

“Who is truly anyone? Every person is illusion to some degree.”
― Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson, The Winds of Dune

“The greatest and most important problems of life cannot be solved. They can
only be outgrown.”
― Brian Herbert, House Harkonnen

“Never underestimate the power of the human mind to believe what it wants to
believe, no matter the conflicting evidence.”
― Brian Herbert, House Harkonnen

“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

“Discovery is dangerous . . . but so is life. A man unwilling to take risk is
doomed never to learn, never to grow, never to live.”
― Brian Herbert, House Harkonnen

“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.”
― Brian Herbert, House Atreides

“No person can ever know everything that is in the heart of another. We are
all Face Dancers in our souls.”
― Brian Herbert, House Harkonnen

“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.”
― Brian Herbert, House Atreides

“With few ambitions, most people allowed efficient machines to perform everyday tasks for them. Gradually, humans ceased to think, or dream... or truly live.”
― Brian Herbert, The Butlerian Jihad

“Life is filled with tests, one after another, and if you don't recognize them, you are certain to fail the most important ones.”
― Brian Herbert, Sisterhood of Dune

“We must face our responsibilities regardless of whether we get what we want.”
― Brian Herbert, Sisterhood of Dune

“Every hammer has the innate capacity to strike a nail. Every human mind has the innate capacity for greatness. But not every hammer is properly used, nor is every human mind.”
― Brian Herbert, Mentats of Dune

“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.”
― Brian Herbert

“Let the future remain uncertain, for that is the canvas to receive our desires.”
― Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson, House Harkonnen

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

“Let pressure pass over and through you. That way you can't be harmed by it.”
― Brian Herbert, House Atreides

“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.”
― Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson, House Harkonnen

“It is said that there is nothing firm, nothing balanced, nothing durable in all
the universe -- that nothing remains in its original state, that each day, each
hour, each moment, there is change.”
― Brian Herbert, House Harkonnen

“I'm a thinker. That is what I do, in great depth and detail, every waking moment of the day. I like to believe it's worthwhile. And yet, I can't help but recall something ... said to me once when I was young: "All of these things with which we occupy ourselves don't amount to much in the cosmic scale of things, do they? No matter how extensively we ponder any particular topic, there is really very little there"--Gilbertus Albans, Reflections in the Mirror of the Mind”
― Brian Herbert, Sisterhood of Dune