Quote

Unused power was like a marionette with visible strings, nobody holding them. A compelling attraction: I could make it dance.

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.
Attraction
Holding
Visible
Dance
Nobody
Power
Unused
Make
Compelling
Like
Strings

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A creature who has spent his life creating one particular representation of his selfdom will die rather than become the antithesis of that representation
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I don't worry about inspiration, or anything like that. It's a matter of just sitting down and working.
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The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth.
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To endure oneself may be the hardest task in the universe. You cannot hire a wise man or any other intellect to solve it for you. There's no writ of inquest or calling of witness to provide answers.
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Life is a mask through which the universe expresses itself.
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Demagogues are so easy to identify. They gesture a lot and speak with pulpit rhythms, using words that ring of religious fervour and god-fearing sincerity. Sincerity with nothing behind it takes so much practice. The practice can always be detected. Repetition. Great attempts to keep your attention on words.
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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?
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If you want immortality, then deny form. Whatever has form has mortality. Beyond form is the formless, the immortal.
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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.
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Democracy is susceptible to being led astray by having scapegoats paraded in front of the electorate.
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To know the future absolutely it to be trapped into that future absolutely. It collapses time. Present becomes future.
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Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain.
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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 to late.
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We tend to become like the worst in those we oppose.
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Once human beings realize something can be done, they're not satisfied until they've done it.
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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.
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There is not secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves.
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A voice hissed: He sheds tears! It was taken around the ring Usal gives moisture to the dead! He felt fingers touch his damp cheek, heard the awed whispers.
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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.
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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.
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