the princess irulan quotes

There should be a science of discontent. People need hard times and oppression
to develop psychic muscles.

-from "Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

The hands move, the lips move --
Ideas gush from his words,
And his eyes devour!
He is an island of Selfdom.

-description from "A Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

You cannot avoid the interplay of politics within an orthodox religion. This
power struggle permeates the training, educating and disciplining of the
orthodox community. Because of this pressure, the leaders of such a community
inevitably must 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.

-from "Muad'Dib: The Religious Issues" by the Princess Irulan

O Seas of Caladan,
O people of Duke Leto--
Citadel of Leto fallen,
Fallen forever . . .

-from "Songs of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

There is in all things a pattern that is part of our universe. It has symmetry,
elegance, and grace -- those qualities you find always in that which the true
artist captures. You can find it in the turning of the seasons, in the way sand
trails along a ridge, in the branch clusters of the creosote bush or the
pattern of its leaves. We try to copy these patterns in our lives and our
society, seeking the rhythms, the dances, the forms that comfort. Yet, it is
possible to see peril in the finding of ultimate perfection. It is clear that
the ultimate pattern contains its own fixity. In such perfection, all things
move toward death.

-from "The Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in
part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences
greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is
projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is
what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that
permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional
greatness will destroy a man.

-from "Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife--chopping off what's incomplete and
saying: "Now, it's complete because it's ended here."

-from "Collected Sayings of, Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

Thus spoke St. Alia-of-the-Knife: "The Reverend Mother must combine the
seductive wiles of a courtesan with the untouchable majesty of a virgin
goddess, holding these attributes in tension so long as the powers of her youth
endure. For when youth and beauty have gone, she will find that the
place-between, once occupied by tension, has become a wellspring of cunning and
resourcefulness."

-from "Muad'Dib, Family Commentaries" by the Princess Irulan

Many have marked the speed with which Muad'Dib learned the necessities of
Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit, of course, know the basis of this speed. For the
others, we can say that Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was
in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could
learn. It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn,
and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew that every
experience carries its lesson.

-from "The Humanity of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

There is a legend that the instant the Duke Leto Atreides died a meteor
streaked across the skies above his ancestral palace on Caladan.

-the Princess Irulan: "Introduction to A Child's History of Muad'Dib"

The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the
terrors of the future.

-from "Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

YUEH (yu'e), Wellington (weling-tun), Stdrd 10,082-10,191; medical doctor of
the Suk School (grd Stdrd 10,112); md: Wanna Marcus, B.G. (Stdrd
10,092-10,186?); chiefly noted as betrayer of Duke Leto Atreides. (Cf:
Bibliography, Appendix VII [Imperial Conditioning] and Betrayal, The.)

-from "Dictionary of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

"There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one in
which you discover your father is a man--with human flesh."

-from "Collected Sayings 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

"There is no escape--we pay for the violence of our ancestors. "

-from "The Collected Sayings 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

What had the Lady Jessica to sustain her in her time of trial? Think you
carefully on this Bene Gesserit proverb and perhaps you will see: "Any road
followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just
a little bit to test that it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you
cannot see the mountain."

-from "Muad'Dib: Family Commentaries" by the Princess Irulan

It is said that the Duke Leto blinded himself to the perils of Arrakis, that he
walked heedlessly into the pit. Would it not be more likely to suggest he had
lived so long in the presence of extreme danger he misjudged a change in its
intensity? Or is it possible he deliberately sacrificed himself that his son
might find a better life? All evidence indicates the Duke was a man not easily
hoodwinked.

-from "Muad'Dib: Family Commentaries" by the Princess Irulan

My Father had only one real friend, I think. That was Count Hasimir Fenring,
the genetic-eunuch and one of the deadliest fighters in the Imperium.

-From "In My Father's House" by the Princess Irulan

The man faced with a life-and-death decision must commit himself, or he will
remain caught in the pendulum.

-From "In My Father's House," by the Princess Irulan