Quote

Historians exercise great power and some of them know it. They recreate the past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the future as well.

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.
Well
Fit
Great
Thus
Exercise
Recreate
Future
Interpretations
Past
Historians
Change
Historian
Power
Interpretation
Wells
Changing

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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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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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Providence and Manifest Destiny are synonyms often invoked to support arguments based on wishful thinking.
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When you think to take determination of your fate into your own hands, that is the moment you can be crushed. Be cautious.
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If you rely only on your eyes, your other senses weaken.
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If we define Futurism as an exploration beyond accepted limits, then the nature of limiting systems becomes the first object of exploration.
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All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.
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When I am weaker than 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.
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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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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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There are limits to power, as those who put their hopes in a constitution always discover.
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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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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.
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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.
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Does a population have informed consent when a ruling minority acts in secret to ignite a war, doing this to justify the existence of the minority's forces? ... Failure to provide full information for informed consent on such an issue represents an ultimate crime.
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The day hums sweetly when you have enough bees working for you.
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Unused power was like a marionette with visible strings, nobody holding them. A compelling attraction: I could make it dance.
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The writing of history is largely a process of diversion. Most historical accounts distract attention from the secret influences behind great events.
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When a wise man does not understand, he says: I do not understand. The fool and the uncultured are ashamed of their ignorance. They remain silent when a question could bring them wisdom.
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Justice required resort to law and that could be a fickle mistress, subject always to the whims and prejudices of those who administered the laws.
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