Lessons From Arrakis

by the subway philosopher™

Quotations from the great novel Dune, by Frank Herbert:

 Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. – Bene Gesserit proverb.

 There is no escape — we pay for the violence of our ancestors. – from “The Collected Sayings of Muad’Dib”.

 A world is supported by four things – the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous, and the valor of the brave. But all of these are as nothing without a ruler who knows the art of ruling. – The Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam.

 Do you wrestle with dreams? Do you contend with shadows? Do you move in a kind of sleep? Time has slipped away. Your life is stolen. You tarried with trifles, victim of your folly. – from “Songs of Muad’Dib”.

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. – from “Muad’Dib: Conversations”.

Mankind has only one science – the science of discontent. – Count Hasimir Fenring.

My father once told me that respect for the truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. “Something cannot emerge from nothing,” he said. This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable “the truth” can be. – from “Conversations with Muad’Dib”.

When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong — faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thought of obstacles and forget that a precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it’s too late. – The Lady Jessica.

The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive. – Pardot Kynes, Imperial Planetologist.

Fear is the mind-killer. – from The Litany Against Fear, Bene Gesserit rite.

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