He had achieved harmony simply by accepting it.

He was warrior and mystic, ogre and saint, the fox and the innocent, chivalrous, ruthless, less than a god, more than a man.

There was a desperate need for room to expand driven by the myth of Freedom. Most had not learned the deeper lesson of the Tyrant, that violence builds its own limits.

There was a man so wise, \ He jumped into \ A sandy place \ And burnt out both his eyes! \ And when he knew his eyes were gone, \ He offered no complaint. \ He summoned up a vision \ And made himself a saint. —Children's Verse

[…]humans are seldom alerted to the shifting average through a great span of years. And it is precisely in this alerting that humans learn how to survive on any planet. They must learn climate.

There exists no separation between gods and men; one blends softly casual into the other.

To come under siege was the inevitable fate of power.

How persistent it is, this demand that our gods be perfect. The Greeks were much more reasonable about such things.

Battle? There's always a desire for breathing space motivating it somewhere.

The mind of the believer stagnates. It fails to grow outward into an unlimited, infinite universe.

The wise man molds himself—the fool lives only to die.

What religion and self-interest cannot hide, governments can.

A killer with the manners of a rabbit - this is the most dangerous kind.

Membership in a conspiracy, as in an army, frees people from the sense of personal responsibility.

Thou shalt not disfigure the soul.

Fortune passes everywhere

Most believe that a satisfactory future requires a return to an idealized past, a past which never in fact existed.

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.

"Make no heroes," my father said.

The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery.

Some days it's melange; some days it's bitter dirt.

Thinking you know why you behave as you do gives you all sorts of excuses for extraordinary behavior.

"May you die on Caladan!" —Ancient Drinking Toast

Never attempt to reason with people who know they are right!

The problem of leadership is inevitably: Who will play God?

"You see, gentlemen, they have something to die for. They've discovered they're a people. They're awakening."

We witness a passing phase of eternity. Important things happen but some people never notice.

The Fremen see her as the Earth Figure, a demi-goddess whose special charge is to protect the tribes through her powers of violence.

Reason is the first victim of strong emotion.

The failure of CHOAM? Quite simple: They ignore the fact that larger commercial powers wait at the edges of their activities, powers that could swallow them the way a slig swallows garbage. This is the true threat of the Scattering—to them and to us all.