“Those who would repeat the past must control the teaching of history.”
—Bene Gesserit Coda
“The person who takes the banal and ordinary and illuminates it in a
new
way can terrify. We do not want our ideas changed. We feel
threatened
by such demands. ‘I already know the important things!’ we
say.
Then Changer comes and throws our old ideas away.”
—The Zensufi Master
“Rules build up fortifications behind which small minds create
satrapies.
A perilous state of affairs in the best of times, disastrous during
crises.”
—Bene Gesserit Coda
“We tend to become like the worst in those we oppose.”
—Bene Gesserit Coda
“You can not know history unless you know how leaders move with its
currents.
Every leader requires outsiders to perpetuate his leadership.”
—Leto II (The Tyrant), Vether Bebe Translation
“You can not manipulate a marionette with only one string.”
—The Zensunni Whip
“Confine yourself to observing and you always miss the point of your
own
life. The object can be stated this way: Live the best life
you
can. Life is a game whose rules you learn if you leap into it and
play
it to the hilt. Otherwise, you are caught off balance,
continually
surprised by the shifting play. Non-players often whine and
complain
that luck always passes the by. They refuse to see that they can
create
some of their own luck.”
—Darwi Odrade
“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.”
—Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
“Power attracts the corrupted–Absolut power attracts the absolutely
corrupted”
—Bene Gesserit Saying
“The writing of history is largely a process of diversion. Most
historical
accounts distract attention from the secret influences behind great
events.”
—The Bashar Teg
“Corruption wears infinite disguises.”
—Tleilaxu Thu-zen
“Education is no substitute for intelligence. That elusive
quality
is defined only in part by puzzle-solving ability. It is in the
creation
of new puzzles reflecting what your senses report that you round out
the
definition.”
—Mentat Text One (decto)
“Many things we do naturally become difficult only when we try to make
them
intellectual subjects. It is possible to know so much about a
subject
that you become totally ignorant.”
—Mentat Text Two (dicto)
“Religion (emulation of adults by the child) encysts past mythologies:
guesses,
hidden assumptions of trust in the universe, pronouncements of trust in
the
universe, pronouncements made in search of personal power, all mingled
with
shreds of enlightenment. And always an unspoken
commandment:
Thou shalt not question! We break that commandment daily in the
harnessing
of human imagination to our deepest creativity.”
—Bene Gesserit Credo
“Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit.
This
is the fine point on which all the legal professions of history have
based
their job security.”
—Bene Gesserit Coda
“Show me a completely smooth operation and I’ll show you someone who’s
covering
mistakes. Real boats rock.”
—Darwi Odrade
“We do not teach history; we recreate the experience. We follow
the
chain of consequences–the tracks of the beast in the forest. Look
behind
our words and you see the broad sweep of social behavior that no
historian
has ever touched.”
—Bene Gesserit Panoplia Propheticus
“All states are abstractions.”
—Octun Politicus, BG Archives
“Some never participate. Life happens to them. They get by
on
little more than dumb persistence and resist with anger or violence all
things
that might lift them out of resentment-filled illusions of security.”
—Alma Mavis Taraza
“To know a thing well, know it limits. Only when pushed beyond
its
tolerances will its true nature be seen.”
—The Amtal Rule
“Do not depend only on theory if your life is at stake.”
—Bene Gesserit Commentary
“Ready comprehension is often a knee-jerk response and the most
dangerous
form of understanding. It blinks an opaque screen over your
ability
to learn. The judgmental precedents of law function that way,
littering
your path with dead ends. Be warned. Understanding
nothing.
All comprehension is temporary.”
—Mentat Fixe (adacto)
“Major flaws in government arise from a fear of making radical internal
changes
even though a need is clearly seen.”
—Darwi Odrade
“Time does not count itself. You have only to look at a circle
and
this is apparent.”
—Leto II (The Tyrant)
“A major concept guides the Missionaria Protectiva: Purposeful
instruction
of the masses. This if firmly seated in our belief that the aim
of
argument should be to change the nature of truth. In such
matters,
we prefer the use of power rather than force.”
—The Coda
“The best art imitates life in a compelling way. If it imitates a
dream,
it must be a dream of life. Otherwise, there is no place where we
can
connect. Our plugs don’t fit.”
—Darwi Odrade
“Uproot your questions from their ground and the dangling roots will be
seen.
More questions!”
—Mentat Zensufi
“Humans are born with a susceptibility to that most persistent and
debilitating
disease of intellect: self-deception. The best of all possible
worlds
and the worst get their dramatic coloration from it. As nearly as
we
can determine, there is no natural immunity. Constant alertness
is
required.”
—The Coda
“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.
—Darwi Odrade
“No sweeteners will cloak some forms of bitterness. If it tastes
bitter,
spit it out. That’s what our earliest ancestors did.”
—The Coda
“Enter no conflict against fanatics unless you can defuse them.
Oppose
a religion with another religion only if your proofs (miracles) are
irrefutable
or if you can mesh in a way that the fanatics accept you as
god-inspired.
This has long been the barrier to science assuming a mantle of divine
revelation.
Science is so obviously man-made. Fanatics (and many are fanatic
on
one subject or another) must know where you stand, but more important,
must
recognize who whispered in your ear.”
—Missionaria Protectiva, Primary Teaching
“Spend energies on those who make you strong. Energy spent on
weaklings
drag you to doom. (HM rule) Bene Gesserit Commentary: Who judges?”
—The Dortujla Record
“Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline
and
find your liberty.”
—The Coda
“Making workable choices occurs in a crucible of informative
mistakes.
Thus Intelligence accepts fallibility. And when absolute
(infallible)
choices are not known, Intelligence takes chances with limited data in
an
arena where mistakes are not only possible but also necessary.”
—Darwi Odrade
“Ultimately, all things are known because you want to believe you know.”
—Zensunni koan
“Answers are a perilous grip on the universe. They can appear
sensible
yet explain nothing.”
—The Zensunni Whip
“Battle? There’s always a desire for breathing space motivating it
somewhere.”
—The Bashar Teg
“Do not be quick to reveal judgment. Hidden judgment often is
more
potent. It can guide reactions whose effects are felt only when
too
late to divert them.”
—Bene Gesserit Advice to Postulants
“When you think to take determination of your fate into your own hands,
that
is the movement you can be crushed. Be cautious. Allow for
surprises.
When we crate, there are always other forces at work.”
—Darwi Odrade
“There’s no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves.”
—Darwi Odrade
“Paired opposites define your longings and those longings imprison you.”
—The Zensunni Whip
