To attempt an understanding of Muad'Dib without understanding his mortal
enemies, the Harkonnens, is to attempt seeing Truth without knowing Falsehood.
It is the attempt to see the Light without knowing Darkness. It cannot be.
-from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are
correct. This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows. To begin your study of
the life of Muad'Dib, then, take care that you first place him in his time:
born in the 57th year of the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV. And take the most
special care that you locate Muad'Dib in his place: the planet Arrakis. Do not
be deceived by the fact that he was born on Caladan and lived his first fifteen
years there. Arrakis, the planet known as Dune, is forever his place.
-from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
What do you despise? By this are you truly known.
-from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
On that first day when Muad'Dib rode through the streets of Arrakeen with his
family, some of the people along the way recalled the legends and the prophecy
and they ventured to shout: "Mahdi!" But their shout was more a question than a
statement, for as yet they could only hope he was the one foretold as the Lisan
al-Gaib, the Voice from the Outer World. Their attention was focused, too, on
the mother, because they had heard she was a Bene Gesserit and it was obvious
to them that she was like the other Lisan al-Gaib.
-from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
Over the exit of the Arrakeen landing field, crudely carved as though with a
poor instrument, there was an inscription that Muad'Dib was to repeat many
times. He saw it that first night on Arrakis, having been brought to the ducal
command post to participate in his father's first full staff conference. The
words of the inscription were a plea to those leaving Arrakis, but they fell
with dark import on the eyes of a boy who had just escaped a close brush with
death. They said: "O you who know what we suffer here, do not forget us in your
prayers. "
-from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan