Frank Herbert Quotes

246 Sourced Quotes

No matter how much we ask after the truth, self-awareness is often unpleasant. We do not feel kindly toward the Truthsayer.

Frank Herbert
In my estimation, more misery has been created by reformers than by any other force in human history.

Frank Herbert
A leader, you see, is one of the things that distinguishes a mob from a people.

Frank Herbert
The young reed dies so easily. Beginnings are times of great peril.

Frank Herbert
Most of us choose our companions and surroundings to reflect ourselves.

Frank Herbert
Beware! The mind of the believer stagnates. It fails to grow outward into an unlimited, infinite universe.

Frank Herbert
The writing of history is largely a process of diversion. Most historical accounts distract attention from the secret influences behind great events.

Frank Herbert
Law always chooses sides on the basis of enforcement power. Morality and legal niceties have little to do with it when the real question is: Who has the clout?

Frank Herbert
What greater gift is there than to demonstrate you need not fear death?

Frank Herbert
When you think you know something: that is a most perfect barrier against learning.

Frank Herbert
.. is to attempt seeing Truth without knowing Falsehood. It is the attempt to see the Light without knowing Darkness. It cannot be.

Frank Herbert
To endure oneself may be the hardest task in the universe. You cannot hire a wise man or any other intellect to solve it for you. There's no writ of inquest or calling of witness to provide answers.

Frank Herbert
Words can carry any burden we wish. All that's required is agreement and a tradition upon which to build.

Frank Herbert
Can you collect chaos? Not collecting, that is the ultimate gathering. What can you gather without gathering yourself.

Frank Herbert
When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.

Frank Herbert
Justice required resort to law and that could be a fickle mistress, subject always to the whims and prejudices of those who administered the laws.

Frank Herbert
Order generally was a product of human activity. Chaos existed as a raw material from which to create order.

Frank Herbert
Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government?

Frank Herbert
There's an unwritten compact between you and the reader. If someone enters a bookstore and sets down hard earned money (energy) for your book, you owe that person some entertainment and as much more as you can give.

Frank Herbert
The mind goes on working no matter how we try to hold it back.

Frank Herbert
Most lives are a flight from selfhood. Most prefer the truths of the stable. You stick your head into the stanchions and munch contentedly until you die. Others use you for their purposes. Not once do you look outside the stable to lift your head and be your own creature.

Frank Herbert
Many things we do naturally become difficult only when we try to make them intellectual subjects. It is possible to know so much about a subject that you become totally ignorant.

Frank Herbert
Membership in a conspiracy, as in an army, frees people from the sense of personal responsibility.

Frank Herbert
The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it.

Frank Herbert
History is a constant race between invention and catastrophe.

Frank Herbert
When a creature has developed into one thing, he will choose death rather than change into his opposite.

Frank Herbert
Education is no substitute for intelligence. That elusive quality is defined only in part by puzzle-solving ability. It is in the creation of new puzzles reflecting what your senses report that you round out the definitions.

Frank Herbert
Prisons are needed only to provide the illusion that courts and police are effective. They're a kind of job insurance.

Frank Herbert
What are you, child, that you need time to learn about yourself?

Frank Herbert
Unused power was like a marionette with visible strings, nobody holding them. A compelling attraction: I could make it dance.

Frank Herbert