"What was it St. Augustine said? "The mind commands the body and it obeys. The mind orders itself and meets resistance."

"Since every individual is accountable ultimately to the self, the formation of that self demands our utmost care and attention."

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

"Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part on 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."

"Highly organized research is guaranteed to produce nothing new."

"I realize that humans cannot bear very much reality. Most lives are a flight from selfhood. Most prefer the truths of the stable. You stick your heads into the stanchions and munch contentedly until you die. Others use you for their purposes. Not once do you live outside the stable to lift your head and be your own creature. Muad'Dib came to tell you about that. Without understanding his message, you cannot revere him!"

"It is a wise man that does know the contented man is never poor, whilst the discontented man is never rich."

"You see, gentlemen, they have something to die for. They've discovered they're a people. They're awakening."

"Does a population have informed consent when that population is not taught the inner workings of its monetary system, and then is drawn, all unknowing, into economic adventures?"

"This wise man observed that wealth is a tool of freedom. But the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery."

"He straightened, assuming an odd attitude of dignity " as though it were another mask."

"Religion must remain an outlet for people who say to themselves, 'I am not the kind of person I want to be.' It must never sink into an assemblage of the self-satisfied."

"Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain."

"The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand."

"Piter: Ah-ah, Baron! Is it not regrettable you were unable to devise this delicious scheme by yourself?Baron: Someday I will have you strangled, Piter.Piter: Of a certainty, Baron. Enfin! But a kind act is never lost, eh?Baron: Have you been chewing verite or semuta, Piter?"

"It is far better to win a battle through skilled leadership and wise decisions than violence and bloodshed. It may not seem as glorious to the uninitiated, but in the end it results in fewer wounds--of any kind."

"Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place."

"He who can destroy a thing, can control a thing."

"I am not the river I am the net."

"There exists a limit to the force even the most powerful may apply without destroying themselves. Judging this limit is the true artistry of government. Misuse of power is the fatal sin. The law cannot be a tool of vengeance, never a hostage, nor a fortification against the martyrs it has created. You cannot threaten any individual and escape the consequences."

"There will be sadness," Alia intoned. "I remind you that all things are but beginning, forever beginning. Worlds wait to be conquered. Some within the sound of my voice will attain exalted destinies. You will sneer at the past, forgetting what I tell you now: within all differences there is unity."

"Motivating people, forcing them to your will, gives you a cynical attitude toward humanity. It degrades everything it touches."

"Black is a blind remembering, she thought. You listen for pack sounds, for the cries of those who hunted your ancestors in a past so ancient only your most primitive cells remember. The ears see. The nostrils see."

"The vision of time is broad, but when you pass through it, time becomes a narrow door.' And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning, 'That path leads ever down into stagnation."

"Humans are almost always lonely."

"He's taking the change well?" She asked.Except for getting a bit overtired. He's excited, but what 15-year-old wouldn't be under these circumstances?"

"A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it."

"There is no real ending. It's just the place where you stop the story."

"I never thought it would be easy to serve God," she said. "I just didn't think it would be this hard."

"Military foolishness is ultimately suicidal. They believe that by risking death they pay the price of any violent behavior against enemies of their own choosing. They have the invader mentality, that false sense of freedom from responsibility for your own actions."

"The price we paid was the price men have always paid for achieving a paradise in this life--we went soft, we lost our edge."

"Give as few orders as possible," his father had told him once long ago. "Once you've given orders on a subject, you must always give orders on that subject."

"Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken."

"Hard tasks need hard ways."

"My son will wear the title well, the Duke thought, and realized with a sudden chill that this was another death thought."

"Delay is as dangerous as the wrong answer."

"How would we flood village and city with our information? The people must learn how well I govern them. How would they know if we didn't tell them?"

"Then she said a good ruler has to learn his world's language, that it's different for every world. And I thought she meant they didn't speak Galach on Arrakis, but she said that wasn't it at all. She said she meant the language of the rocks and growing things, the language you don't hear just with your ears. And I said that's what Dr. Yueh calls the Mystery of Life. Hawat chuckled. "How'd that sit with her? "I think she got mad. She said the mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience. So I quoted the First Law of Mentat at her: 'A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it."

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible."

"He realized suddenly that it was one thing to see the past occupying the present, but the true test of prescience was to see the past in the future. Things persisted in not being what they seemed."

"Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect any who seek it."

"The universe is full of doors."

"I warn you that ignorance thrives on hysteria."

"It could be a work of art among vendettas."

"What delicious abandon in the sleep of the child. Where do we lose it?"

"Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept?"

"We have a disturbed relationship with our past which religion cannot explain. We are primitive in unexplainable ways, our lives woven of the familiar and the strange, the reasonable and the insane."

"What has mood to do with it? You fight when the necessity arises-no matter the mood! Mood's a thing for cattle or making love or playing the baliset. It's not for fighting."

"There is only one true wealth in all the universe--living time."

"Use the first moments in study. You may miss many an opportunity for quick victory in this way, but the moment the study are in insurance of success. Take your time and be sure."