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Discovery is dangerous . . . but so is life. A man unwilling to take risk is
doomed never to learn, never to grow, never to live.

-PLANETOLOGIST PARDOT KYNES, An Arrakis Primer, written for his son Liet


Behold, O Man, you can create life. You can destroy life. But, lo, you have
no choice but to experience life. And therein lies both your greatest strength
and your greatest weakness.

-Orange Catholic Bible, Book of Kimla Septima, 5:3


Enemies strengthen you; allies weaken.

-EMPEROR ELROOD IX, Deathbed Insights


Thinking, and the methods by which thoughts are communicated, inevitably create
a system permeated by illusions.

-Zensunni Teaching


The ego is only a bit of consciousness swimming upon the ocean of dark things.
We are an enigma unto ourselves.

-The Mentat Handbook


One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp with too much force is to be
taken over by power, thus becoming its victim.

-Bene Gesserit Axiom


Dreams are as simple or as complicated as the dreamer.

-LIET-KYNES, In the Footsteps of My Father


Never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die.

-Fremen Saying


Nature has moved inexplicably backward and forward to produce this marvelous,
subtle Spice. One is tempted to suggest that only divine intervention could
possibly have produced a substance which in one aspect extends human life and
in another opens the inner doors of the psyche to the wonders of Time and
Creation.

-HIDAR FEN AJIDICA, Laboratory Notes on the Nature of Melange


The individual is shocked by the overwhelming discovery of his own mortality.
The species, however, is different. It need not die.

-PARDOT KYNES, An Arrakis Primer


It is true that one may become rich through practicing evil, but the power of
Truth and Justice is that they endure . . . and that a man can say of them,
“They are a heritage from my father.”

-Fifth Dynasty (Old Terra) calendar: The Wisdom of Ptahhotep


Beneath a world -- in its rocks, its dirt and sedimentary overlays -- there you
find the planet's memory, the complete analog of its existence, its ecological
memory.

-PARROT KYNES, An Arrakis Primer


When you ask a question, do you truly want to know the answer, or are you
merely flaunting your power?

-DMITRI HARKONNEN, Notes to My Sons


Never underestimate the power of the human mind to believe what it wants to
believe, no matter the conflicting evidence.

-CAEDMON ERB, Politics and Reality


Before us, all methods of learning were tainted by instinct. Before us,
instinct-ridden researchers possessed a limited attention span -- often no
longer than a single lifetime. Projects stretching across fifty or more
generations never occurred to them. The concept of total muscle/nerve training
had not entered their awareness. We learned how to learn.

-Bene Gesserit Azhar Book


The individual is the key, the final effective unit of all biological processes.

-PARDOT KYNES


We are always human and carry the whole burden of being human.

-DUKE LETO ATREIDES


The haughty do but build castle walls behind which they try to hide their
doubts and fears.

-Bene Gesserit Axiom


The desert is a surgeon cutting away the skin to expose what is underneath.

-Fremen Saying


The universe is our picture. Only the immature imagine the cosmos to be what
they think it is.

-SIGAN VISEE, First Head Instructor, Guild Navigator School


It is the Atreides way to be examples of honor for our children, so that they
may be the same for their own progeny.

-DUKE LETO ATREIDES, First Speech to the Caladan Assembly


Heaven must be the sound of running water.

-Fremen Saying


Love is an ancient force, one that served its purpose in its day but is no
longer essential for the survival of the species.

-Bene Gesserit Axiom


No one has yet determined the power of the human species . . . what it may
perform by instinct, and what it may accomplish with rational determination.

-Mentat Objective Analysis of Human Capabilities


Challenge: Time?
Answer: A brilliant, many-faceted gem.

Challenge: Time?
Answer: A dark stone, reflecting no visible light.

-Fremen wisdom, from The Riddle Game


There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments.

-Bene Gesserit Axiom


Unceasing warfare gives rise to its own social conditions, which have been
similar throughout the ages. One such condition is a permanent state of
alertness to ward off attack. Another is the rule of the autocrat.

-CAMMAR PILRU, Ixian Ambassador in Exile: Treatise on the Downfall of Unjust
Governments


Water is the image of life. We came from water, adapted from its
all-encompassing presence . . . and we continue to adapt.

-IMPERIAL PLANETOLOGIST PARDOT KYNES


Immobility is often mistaken for peace.

-EMPEROR ELROOD CORRINO IX


If a man can accept his sin, he can live with it. If a man cannot accept
personal sin, he suffers unbearable consequences.

-Meditations from Bifrost Eyrie, Buddislamic Text