the tyrant quotes

You cannot know history unless you know how leaders move with its currents.
Every leader requires outsiders to perpetuate his leadership. Examine my
career: I was leader and outsider. Do not assume I merely created a
Church-State. That was my function as leader and I copied historical models.
Barbaric arts of my time reveal me as outsider. Favorite poetry: epics.
Popular dramatic ideal: heroism. Dances: wildly abandoned. Stimulants to
make people sense what I took from them. What did I take? The right to choose
a role in history.

-Leto II (The Tyrant): Vether Bebe Translation