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Only gods can safely risk perfection ... it's a dangerous thing for a man.

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.
Thing
Men
Safely
Gods
Perfection
Risk
Dangerous

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A leader, you see, is one of the things that distinguishes a mob from a people.
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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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When you imagine mistakes, there can be no self-defense.
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The mind goes on working no matter how we try to hold it back.
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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.
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Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife - chopping off what's incomplete and saying: Now it's complete because it's ended here.
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Clinging to any form of conservatism can be dangerous. Become too conservative and you are unprepared for surprises. You cannot depend on luck. Logic is blind and often knows only its own past. Logic is good for playing chess but is often too slow for the needs of survival.
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Give me the judgment of balanced minds in preference to laws every time. Codes and manuals create patterned behavior. All patterned behavior tends to go unquestioned, gathering destructive momentum.
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Most men go through life unchallenged, except at the final moment.
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Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you someone who's covering mistakes. Real boats rock.
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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.
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You know it's love when you want to give joy and damn the consequences.
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The convoluted wording of legalisms grew up around the necessity to hide from ourselves the violence we do to each other.
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The difference between sentiment and being sentimental is the following: Sentiment is when a driver swerves out of the way to avoid hitting a rabbit on the road. Being sentimental is when the same driver, when swerving away from the rabbit, hits a pedestrian.
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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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History is a constant race between invention and catastrophe.
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When I need to identify rebels, I look for men with principles
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Words are such gross machinery, so primitive and ambiguous.
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Words themselves were the ultimate barrier to revelation.
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Caution is the path to mediocrity.
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