Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
Below are the most popular and impactful highlights and quotes from Children of Dune:
“Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class - whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.- Politics as Repeat Phenomenon: Bene Gesserit Training Manual”
“The gift of words is the gift of deception and illusion.”
“The child who refuses to travel in the father's harness, this is the symbol of man's most unique capability. "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.”
“The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth.”
“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.”
“When I am Weaker Thn You, I ask you for Freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am Stronger than you, I take away your Freedom Because that is according to my principles.”
“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.”
“One learns from books and example only that certain things can be done. Actual learning requires that you do those things.”
“To know a thing well, know its limits; Only when pushed beyond its tolerance will its true nature be seen.-The Amtal Rule”
“Most deadly errors arise from obsolete assumptions.”
“You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgement of your existence.”
“One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp too strongly is to be taken over by power, and thus to become its victim.”
“Every judgment teeters on the brink of error,” Leto explained. “To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.”
“If you focus your awareness only upon your own rightness, then you invite the forces of opposition to overwhelm you.”
“Knowing was a barrier which prevented learning.”
“To Suspect your Own Mortality is to Know the Beginning of Terror; To Learn Irrefutably that you are mortal is to Know the End of Terror.”
“Often I must Speak otherwise than I Think. This is Called Diplomacy.”
“If all those around you believe some particular thing, you will soon be tempted to share in that belief.”
“Abandon certainty! That's life's deepest command. That's what life's all about. We're a probe into the unknown, into the uncertain. Why can't you hear Muad'Dib? If certainty is knowing absolutely an absolute future, then that's only death disguised! Such a future becomes now!”
“Atrocity is recognized as such by victim and perpetrator alike, by all who learn about it at whatever remove. Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity. It is self-perpetuating upon itself — a barbarous form of incest. Whoever commits atrocity also commits those future atrocities thus bred.”
“There are illusions of popular history which a successful religion must promote: Evil men never prosper; only the brave deserve the fair; honesty is the best policy; actions speak louder than words; virtue always triumphs; a good deed is its own reward; any bad human can be reformed; religious talismans protect one from demon possession; only females understand the ancient mysteries; the rich are doomed to unhappiness.”
“I'm going to rub your faces in things you try to avoid. I don't find it strange that all you want to believe is only that which comforts you. How else do humans invent the traps which betray us into mediocrity? How else do we define cowardice?”
“If you put away those who report accurately, you’ll keep only those who know what you want to hear. I can think of nothing more poisonous than to rot in the stink of your own reflections.”
“To exist is to stand out, away from the background," The Preacher said. "You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.”
“We’ve lost something vital, I tell you. When we lost it, we lost the ability to make good decisions. We fall upon decisions these days the way we fall upon an enemy—or wait and wait, which is a form of giving up, and we allow the decisions of others to move us. Have we forgotten that we were the ones who set this current flowing?”
“What you of the CHOAM directorate seem unable to understand is that you seldom find real loyalties in commerce ... Men must want to do things of their own innermost drives. People, not commercial organisations or chains of command, are what make great civilizations work, every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces. If you overorganize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatness — they cannot work and their civilization collapses.”
“The joy of living, its beauty is all bound up in the fact that life can surprise you.”
“There’s no mystery about a human life. It’s not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”
“To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.”
“This is the age of the shrug. He knows I've heard all of the stories about him and he doesn't care. Our civilization could well die of indifference within it before succumbing to external attack.”
Search More Books
More Books You Might Like
Choose Wonder Over Worry: Move Beyond Fear and Doubt to Unlock Your Full Potential
by Amber Rae
Church History in the Fullness of Times: Religion 341-343: the History of the Church of Jesus Christ by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Sai
by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Classic Fm Favourite Shakespea
by john-brunning