Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
The most popular highlights from Dune Messiah, saved by readers on Screvi.
“Truth suffers from too much analysis.-Ancient Fremen Saying”
“If you need something to worship, then worship life - all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!”
“Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual. -Words of Muad'dib by Princess Irulan.”
“The flesh surrenders itself. Eternity takes back its own. Our bodies stirred these waters briefly, danced with a certain intoxication before the love of life and self, dealt with a few strange ideas, then submitted to the instruments of Time. What can we say of this? I occurred. I am not...yet, I occurred.”
“Here lies a toppled god.His fall was not a small one.We did but build his pedestal,A narrow and a tall one.”
“They are not mad. They're trained to believe, not to know. Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.”
“We have eternity, beloved.""You may have eternity. I have only now.""But this is eternity.”
“Reason is the first victim of strong emotion," Scytale murmured.”
“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. Elaborate euphemisms may conceal your intent to kill, but behind any use of power over another the ultimate assumption remains: "I feed on your energy.”
“Constitutions become the ultimate tyranny," Paul said. "They’re organized power on such a scale as to be overwhelming. The constitution is social power mobilized and it has no conscience. It can crush the highest and the lowest, removing all dignity and individuality. It has an unstable balance point and no limitations.”
“Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government?”
“I live in an apocalyptic dream. My steps fit into it so precisely that I fear most of all I will grow bored reliving the thing so exactly.”
“You do not beg the sun for mercy.-Maud'dib's Travail from The Stilgar Commentary”
“It was mostly sweet," he whispered, "and you were the sweetest of all.”
“The wise man molds himself—the fool lives only to die.”
“Some lies are easier to believe than the truth.”
“I don't speak, I operate a machine called language. It creaks and groans, but is mine own.”
“There was a man so wise,He jumped intoA sandy placeAnd burnt out both his eyes!And when he knew his eyes were gone,He offered no complaint.He summoned up a visionAnd made himself a saint. -Children's Verse from History of Muad'dib”
“I didn't want to be different.I wanted to be able to laughBut I'm sister to an Emperor who's worshiped as a god. People fear me. I never wanted to be feared.I don't want to be part of history, I just want to be loved . . . and to love.”
“How easy it was to mistake clear reasoning for correct reasoning!”
“A creature who has spent his life creating one particular representation of his selfdom will die rather than become the antithesis of that representation”
“Some say," Scytale said, "that people cling to Imperial leadership because space is infinite. They feel lonely without a unifying symbol. For a lonely people, the Emperor is a definite place. They can turn toward him and say: 'See, there He is. He makes us one.' Perhaps religion serves the same purpose, m'Lord.”
“And loyalty is a valued commodity. It can be sold . . . not bought, but sold.”
“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.”
“What the eyes had seen could not be erased.”
“There are many degrees of sight and many degrees of blindness. What senses do we lack that we cannot see another world all around us?”
“The past is no farther away than your pillow.”
“Wild Fremen said it well: "Four things cannot be hidden -- love, smoke, a pillar of fire and a man striding across the open bled.”
“There are problems in this universe for which there are no answers. Nothing. Nothing can be done.”
“I told him that to endure oneself may be the hardest task in the universe.”
Find Another Book
Search by title or author to explore highlights from other books.
More Books You Might Like
Explore highlights from similar books.
