Frank Herbert Quotes
Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr was born on the 8th of October, 1920 in Tacoma, Washington, United States. He was an American science-fiction author best known for the 1965 novel Dune and its five sequels.
Frank Herbert also wrote short stories and worked as a newspaper journalist, photographer, book reviewer, ecological consultant, and lecturer. He died February 11, 1986 in UW Health University Hospital, Madison, Wisconsin, United States.
In this article, you will find a collection of famous Frank Herbert quotes and sayings.
50 Frank Herbert Quotes About Life, Government & Fear
“Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.”― Frank Herbert Quote
“Education is no substitute for intelligence.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Nature does not make mistakes. Right and wrong are human categories.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“The future remains uncertain and so it should, for it is the canvas upon which we paint our desires. Thus always the human condition faces a beautifully empty canvas. We possess only this moment in which to dedicate ourselves continuously to the sacred presence which we share and create.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“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.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Bless the Maker and His water.
Bless the coming and going of Him.
May His passage cleanse the world.
May He keep the world for His people. ” ― Frank Herbert Quote
Bless the coming and going of Him.
May His passage cleanse the world.
May He keep the world for His people. ” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“When a wise man does not understand, he says: “I do not understand.” The fool and the uncultured are ashamed of their ignorance. They remain silent when a question could bring them wisdom.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Think you of the fact that a deaf person cannot hear. Then, what deafness may we not all possess? What senses do we lack that we cannot see and cannot hear another world all around us?” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“You know it’s love when you want to give joy and damn the consequences.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“There’s hope left in these dusty chords. There’s a song left in our rusty hearts. We are torn and frayed but love remains.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“To endure oneself may be the hardest task in the universe.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“There is only one true wealth in all the universe–living time.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Emotions are the curse of logic.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“If you focus your awareness only upon your own rightness, then you invite the forces of opposition to overwhelm you.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“I don’t think it’s quite that simple. Some people never observe anything, Life just happens to them. They get by on little more than a kind of dumb persistence, and they resist with anger and resentment anything that might lift them out of that false serenity.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Growth is limited by the necessity which is present in the least amount. And naturally, the least favorable condition controls the growth rate” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“A stone is heavy and the sand is weighty; but a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel.”― Frank Herbert Quote
“I am like a person whose hands were kept numb, without sensation from the first moment of awareness – until one day the ability to feel is forced into them. And I say “Look! I have no hands!” But the people all around me say: “What are hands?” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“For now is my grief heavier than the sands of the seas, she thought. This world has emptied me of all but the oldest purpose: tomorrow’s life.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Most men go through life unchallenged, except at the final moment.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. ”― Frank Herbert Quote
“Knowing where the trap is—that’s the first step in evading it.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Face your fears or they will climb over your back.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“A killer with the manners of a rabbit – this is the most dangerous kind.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Never attempt to reason with people who know they are right!” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Good governance never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“The truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to express it.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“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.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“A person needs new experiences. They jar something deep inside, allowing you to grow. Without them, it sleeps- seldom to awaken. The sleeper must awaken. ” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“If you need something to worship, then worship life – all life, every last crawling bit of it! We’re all in this beauty together!” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“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?” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“This wise man observed that wealth is a tool of freedom. But the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“But it’s well known that repression makes a religion flourish.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“When I need to identify rebels, I look for men with principles”― Frank Herbert Quote
“And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning ‘That path leads ever down into stagnation.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“The convoluted wording of legalisms grew up around the necessity to hide from ourselves the violence we intend toward each other. Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. You have done violence to him, consumed his energy.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Paradise on my right, Hell on my left and the Angel of Death behind.”― Frank Herbert Quote
“Caution is the path to mediocrity. Gliding, passionless mediocrity is all that most people think they can achieve.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“You aren’t thinking or really existing unless you’re willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgement of your existence.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“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.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“To be a god can ultimately become boring and degrading. There’d be reason enough for the invention of free will! A god might wish to escape into sleep and be alive only in the unconscious projections of his dream-creatures.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“The surest way to keep a secret is to make someone think they already know the answer.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
30 Frank Herbert Dune Quotes
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong – faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it’s too late.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“It is so shocking to find out how many people do not believe that they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Without change something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“It is impossible to live in the past, difficult to live in the present and a waste to live in the future.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Whether a thought is spoken or not it is a real thing and it has power,” Tuek said. “You might find the line between life and death among the Fremen to be too sharp and quick.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Try looking into that place where you dare not look! You’ll find me there, staring out at you!” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“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.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows – a wall against the wind.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who so survive.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Anything outside yourself, this you can see and apply your logic to it. But it’s a human trait that when we encounter personal problems, these things most deeply personal are the most difficult to bring out for our logic to scan. We tend to flounder around, blaming everything but the actual, deep-seated thing that’s really chewing on us.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“You see, gentlemen, they have something to die for. They’ve discovered they’re a people. They’re awakening.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“The vision of time is broad, but when you pass through it, time becomes a narrow door.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man – with human flesh.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Any man who retreats into a cave which has only one opening deserves to die.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. ‘Something cannot emerge from nothing,’ he said. This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable ‘the truth’ can be.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Highly organized research is guaranteed to produce nothing new.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you this is something you have always known.”― Frank Herbert Quote
“Grave this on your memory, lad: A world is supported by four things…” she held up four big-knuckled fingers. “…the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valor of the brave. But all of these things are as nothing…” She closed her fingers into a fist. “…without a ruler who knows the art of ruling. Make that the science of your tradition!” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Survival is the ability to swim in strange water.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“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.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“The mind commands the body and it obeys. The mind orders itself and meets resistance.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“The mind can go either direction under stress—toward positive or toward negative: on or off. Think of it as a spectrum whose extremes are unconsciousness at the negative end and hyperconsciousness at the positive end. The way the mind will lean under stress is strongly influenced by training.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“Hope clouds observation.” ― Frank Herbert Quote
“There is no escape—we pay for the violence of our ancestors.”― Frank Herbert Quote
“Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.” ― Frank Herbert Quote