Tom J > Tom's Quotes

“Be prepared to appreciate what you meet.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“What was it St. Augustine said? "The mind commands the body and it obeys. The mind orders itself and meets resistance.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“I should've suspected trouble when the coffee failed to arrive.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“What is the son but an extension of the father?”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“You cannot avoid the interplay of politics within an orthodox religion. The power struggle permeates the training, education and disciplining of the orthodox community. Because of this pressure, the leaders of such a community inevitably much face that ultimate internal question: to succumb to complete opportunism as the price of maintaining their rule, or risk sacrificing themselves for the sake of the orthodox ethic.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“We came from Caladan—a paradise world for our form of life. There existed no need on Caladan to build a physical paradise or a paradise of the mind—we could see the actuality all around us. And the price we paid was the price men have always paid for achieving a paradise in this life—we went soft, we lost our edge.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“Use the first moments in study. You may miss many an opportunity for quick victory this way, but the moments of study are insurance of success. Take your time and be sure.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“A leader, you see, is one of the things that distinguishes a mob from a people. He maintains the level of individuals. Too few individuals, and a people reverts to a mob.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“What delicious abandon in the sleep of the child. Where do we lose it?”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“you've heard of animals chewing off a leg to escape a trap. there's an animal kind of trick. a human would remain in the trap endure the pain feigning death that he might kill the trapper and remove a threat to his kind.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“TO THE LADY JESSICA-
May this place give you as much pleasure as it has given me. Please permit the room to convey a lesson we learned from the same teachers: the proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence. On that path lies danger.

My kindest wishes,
MARGOT LADY FENRING”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“Scientists seek the lawfulness of events. It is the task of Religion to fit man into this lawfulness.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“There's steel in this man that no one has taken the temper out of...”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“My son displays a general garment and you claim it’s cut to your fit?” Jessica asked. “What a fascinating revelation.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“One should never presume one is the sole object of a hunt,”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“You must teach me someday how you do that,” he said, “the way you thrust your worries aside and turn to practical matters. It must be a Bene Gesserit thing.” “It’s a female thing,” she said.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“He understood terrible purposes. They drove against all odds. They were their own necessity. Paul felt that he had been infected with terrible purpose. He did not know yet what the terrible purpose was.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“We Bene Gesserit sift people to find the humans.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“His thoughts were too vague to be described, but they comprehended mysterious elements.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“The terrain enforced its own rhythms.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“At the age of fifteen, he had already learned silence.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“My son will wear the title well, the Duke thought, and realized with a sudden chill that this was another death thought.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“In politics, the tripod is the most unstable of all structures.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“A good ruler has to learn his world's language, and that's different for every world, the language you don't hear just with your ears.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“the drowning man who climbs on your shoulders to save himself is understandable—except when you see it happen in the drawing room.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“The highest function of ecology is understanding consequences.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“Do not count a human dead until you’ve seen his body. And even then you can make a mistake.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“We will never forgive and we will never forget.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“Delay is as dangerous as the wrong answer.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“Shield!” the old woman snapped. “You well know the weakness there! Shield your son too much, Jessica, and he’ll not grow strong enough to fulfill any destiny.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune