#dune quotes

[bloodiedsaffron]

"I'm afraid of my son; I fear his strangeness; I fear what he may see ahead of us, what he may tell me"

- Lady Jessica, Dune

[kamaandhallie]

Dune has a lot of great quotes about AI:

"What do such machines really do? They increase the number of things we can do without thinking. Things we do without thinking-there's the real danger."

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”

Keep in mind, this was written back in the 60s.

[dream-this-nightmare-over]

“I do not have to be what my father was. I do not have to obey my father’s rules or even believe everything he believed. It is my strength as a human that I can make my own choices of what to believe and what not to believe, of what to be and what not to be.”

Children of dune by Frank Herbert, pg. 382.

[blacksunrequiem]

I am slowly digesting the audiobook version of Dune 1 by Frank Hebert and it is truly amazing, both the narration and the writing. Shame on me, for eluding the book for so long. (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)

This very last paragraph of Chapter 3 makes me feel a rare humane and soft side of the Reverend Mother and gives a subtle hint of the true mother of Lady Jessica. I am aware that the identity of Lady Jessica’s mother has been debated following the alleged “notes” from Frank Hebert but this paragraph could be supporting evidence.

The RM may have had a tough time with the Gom Jabbar trial with Paul, knowing all too well the path lies ahead for the Atreides. For her blood daughter and grandson. Still, as the RM said earlier in this same chapter:

“Jessica, girl, I wish I could stand in your place and take your sufferings. But each of us must make her own path.” “I know.” “You’re as dear to me as any of my own daughters, but I cannot let that interfere with duty.”

Duty. What a heavy word. The four-letter word that seems to drive all of the characters crazy in the spiral of control and vengeance （−＿−；）

[dunechapterquotes]

There was a man so wise, He jumped into A sandy place And burnt out both his eyes! And when he knew his eyes were gone, He offered no complaint. He summoned up a vision And made himself a saint. -Children's Verse from History of Muad'dib

(From Dune Messiah)

[fcotdextra]

"My mother's sick with longing for a planet she may never see," Paul said. "Where water falls from the sky and plants grow so thickly you cannot walk between them."

"Water from the sky," Stilgar whispered.

In that instant, Paul saw how Stilgar had been transformed from the Fremen naib to a creature of the Lisan al-Gaib, a receptable for awe and obedience. It was a lessening of the man, and Paul felt the ghost-wind of the jihad in it.

I have seen a friend become a worshiper, he thought.

Frank Herbert - Dune

[elvencantation]

The spice-blue overcast on his eyes made the sky appear dark, a richly filtered azure against which a distant rhythmic flashing stood out in sharp contrast.

-Dune, Frank Herbert

[unexpectedtoast]

God Emperor of Dune

Frank Herbert

[victusinveritas]

“Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.”

- Frank Herbert.

[brettesims]

“The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience. A process that cannot be understood by stopping it. We must move with the flow of the process. We must join it. We must flow with it. Let go.” ~ film: Dune

[baronvladimirharkonnen]

[racsow]

favorite bits from dune

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

When law and duty are one, united by religion, you never become fully conscious, fully aware of yourself. You are always a little less than an individual.

Black is a blind remembering. 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.

Animal consciousness does not extend beyond the given moment.

What do you despise? By this you are truly known.

The terrified man fights himself.

Each man is a little war.

Prophets have a way of dying by violence.

Religion is but the most ancient and honorable way in which men have striven to make sense out of God's universe.

Scientists seek the lawfulness of events. It is the task of religion to fit man into this lawfulness.

The Guild had made the fatal decision: they'd chosen always the clear, safe course that leads ever downwards into stagnation.

The one-eyed vision of the past, the one-eyed vision of the present and the one-eyed vision of the future... all combined in a trinocular vision that permitted him to see time-become-space.

...his being translated beyond the boundaries of time by the poison that gives life.

Mercy is a chimera. It can be defeated by the stomach rumbling its hunger, by the throat crying its thirst.

"The mind can go either direction under stress - toward positive or negative: on or off. Think of it as a spectrum whose extremes are unconsciousness and hyperconsciousness. The way the mind will lean is strongly influenced by training." - Bene Gesserit axioms

"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."

The desert stretched like a static ocean... full of moon-silvered waves, shadows of angles that lapsed into curves and, in the distance, lifted to the misted gray blur of another escarpment.

[aidee-josephine]

"I'm weak of muscle, but strong of mouth; cheap to feed, but costly to fill. Empty me as you will, there's still more in me than men put there." -Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

[silvyysthings]

[dunechapterquotes]

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? -A Guide to Trial and Error in Government, Bene Gesserit Archives

(From Heretics of Dune)

[fcotdextra]

“She stills all storms- Her eyes kill our enemies, And torment the unbelievers. From the spires of Tuono Where dawnlight strikes And clear water runs, You see her shadow. In the shining summer heat She serves us bread and milk- Cool, fragrant with spices. Her eyes melt our enemies, Torment our oppressors And pierce all mysteries. She is Alia. . . Alia. . . Alia. . .”

Frank Herbert - Dune Messiah