“Enemies strengthen you. Allies weaken.”
—The Stolen Journals
“Your soul suffices this day as a reckoner against you. I need no
witnesses.
You do not listen to your soul, but listen instead to you anger and
your
rage.”
—Lord Leto to a Penitent
“Unceasing warfare gives rise to its own social conditions which have
been
similar in all epochs. People enter a permanent state of
alertness
to ward of attacks. You see the absolute rule of the
autocrat.
All new things become dangerous frontier districts–new planets, new
economic
areas to exploit, new ideas or new devices, visitors–everything
suspect.
Feudalism takes firm hold, sometimes disguised as a politburo or
similar
structure, but always present. Hereditary succession follows the
lines
of power. The blood of the powerful dominates. The vice
regents
of heaven or their equivalent apportions the wealth. And they
know
they must control inheritance or slowly let the power melt away.”
—The Stolen Journals
“Scratch a liberal and find a closet aristocrat. It’s true!
Liberal
governments always develop into aristocracies. The bureaucracies
betray
the true intent of the people who form such governments. Right
form
the first, the little people who formed the governments which promised
to
equalize the social burdens found themselves suddenly into the hands of
bureaucratic
aristocrats. Of course, all bureaucracies follow this pattern,
but
what a hypocrisy to find this even under a communized banner.
Ahhh,
well, if patterns teach me anything it’s that patterns are repeated.”
—The Stolen Journals
“The problem of leadership is inevitably: Who will play God?”
—Muad’Dib, from the Oral History
“The singular multiplicity of this universe draws my deepest
attention.
It is a thing of ultimate beauty.”
—The Stolen Journals
“Groups tend to condition their surroundings for group survival.
When
they deviate from this it may be taken as a sign of group
sickness.
There are many telltale symptoms. I watch the sharing of
food.
This is a form of communication, an inescapable sign of mutual aid
which
also contains a deadly signal of dependency.”
—The Stolen Journals
“Do you know what guerrillas often say? They claim that their
rebellions
are invulnerable to economic warfare because they have no economy, that
they
are parasitic on those they would overthrow. The fools merely
fail
to assess the coin in which they must inevitably pay. The pattern
is
inexorable in its degenerate failures. You see it repeated in the
systems
of slavery, of welfare states, of caste-ridden religions, of
socializing
bureaucracies–in any system which creates and maintains
dependencies.
Too long a parasite and you can not exist without a host.”
—The Stolen Journals
“Most civilization is based on cowardice. It’s so easy to
civilize
by teaching cowardice. You water down the standards which would
lead
to bravery. You restrain the will. You regulate the
appetites.
You fence the horizons. You make a law for every movement.
You
deny existence of chaos. You teach even the children to breathe
slowly.
You tame.”
—The Stolen Journals
