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

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

“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

“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

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

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

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

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

“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

“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

“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

“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

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

“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

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

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

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

“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

“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

“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

“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.”
― Brian Herbert, House Harkonnen

“In adverse circumstances, every creature becomes something else, evolving or devolving. What makes us human is that we know what we once were, and, let us hope, we remember how to change back.”
― Brian Herbert, House Atreides