Quote

You don't write for success. That takes part of your attention away from the writing. If you're really doing it, that's all you're doing: writing.

Frank Herbert

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Frank Herbert
Age: 65 †
Born: 1920
Born: October 8
Died: 1986
Died: February 11
Author
Journalist
Novelist
Photographer
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Tacoma
Washington
Frank Patrick Herbert
Franklin Patrick Herbert
Franklin Herbert
Franklin Patrick Herbert
Jr.
Away
Part
Writing
Really
Takes
Attention
Success
Write

More quotes by Frank Herbert

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Prisons are needed only to provide the illusion that courts and police are effective. They're a kind of job insurance.
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You know it's love when you want to give joy and damn the consequences.
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Answers are a perilous grip on the universe. They can appear sensible yet explain nothing.
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The ferocity we show our foes must be tempered by the lesson we hope to teach.
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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?
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The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future.
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Confine yourself to observing and you always miss the point of your own life.
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The joy of living, its beauty, is all bound up in the fact that life can surprise you.
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A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.
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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.
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Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect any who seek it.
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My lungs taste the air of Time,Blown past falling sands.
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Politics: the art of appearing candid and completely open while concealing as much as possible.
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A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel.
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You see, gentlemen, they have something to die for. They've discovered they're a people. They're awakening.
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Beware of the truth, gentle Sister. Although much sought after, truth can be dangerous to the seeker. Myths and reassuring lies are much easier to find and believe. If you find a truth, even a temporary one, it can demand that you make painful changes. Conceal your truths within words. Natural ambiguity will protect you then.
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Question: Who governs the governors? Answer: Entropy
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Nature does not make mistakes. Right and wrong are human categories.
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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?
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Why is it that foolishness repeats itself with such monotonous precision?
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