Dune Quotes

Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife—chopping off what’s incomplete and saying: Now, it’s complete because it’s ended here

We are no longer threatened by famine or plague; now our dangers are that we may die of boredom, or of spiritual anemia, or—worst of all—of ourselves

There is no escape—we pay for the violence of our ancestors

He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still

When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong—faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget that a precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it’s too late

To attempt seeing Truth without knowing Falsehood is the attempt to see the Light without knowing Darkness

There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story

A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it

The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced

What do you despise? By this are you truly known

The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience

The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future

Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty

Survival is the ability to swim in strange water

In their seeking, wisdom and madness are one and the same. On the path of love, friend and stranger are one

The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible

The mind commands the body and it obeys. The mind orders itself and meets resistance

Hope clouds observation

Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual