What a wonderful book. What a fascinating writer. A beautiful brew of unusual life experiences paired with a decade of editing. Can’t recommend it highly enough.

“animal pleasures remain close to sensation levels and avoid the perceptual . . . the human requires a background grid through which to see his universe”

—-

“Why are you doing this?” he demanded.
“To determine if you’re human. Be silent.”

—

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

—

“Ever sift sand through a screen?” she asked. The tangential slash of her question shocked his mind into a higher awareness: Sand through a screen, he nodded. “We Bene Gesserit sift people to find the humans.”

—

“He straightened, assuming an odd attitude of dignity – as though it were another mask, but this time clothing his entire body.”

—

”Humans are almost always lonely.”

—

“Paul looked up at the grizzled old man who stopped at a corner of the table. Hawat’s eyes were two pools of alertness in a dark and deeply seamed face.”

—

“Grave this on your memory, lad: A world is supported by four things . . . ” She held up four big-knuckled fingers. “. . . the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valor of the brave. But all of these are as nothing . . . ” She closed her fingers into a fist. “. . . without a ruler who knows the art of ruling. Make that the science of your tradition!”

—

”She said a ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel. She said he must lay the best coffee hearth to attract the finest men.“

—

“I quoted the First Law of Mentat at her: ‘A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.’ That seemed to satisfy her.“”

—

“Nothing wins more loyalty for a leader than an air of bravura.”

—

“His first encounter with the people he had been ordered to betray left Dr. Kynes shaken.”

—

“Halleck had spoken in Paul’s ear: “Odd sort of fellow. Has a precise way of speaking–clipped off, no fuzzy edges–razor-apt.”
And the Duke, behind them, had said: “Scientist type.””

—

“Kynes stared at him, seeing the water-fat flesh. He spoke coldly: “You never talk of likelihoods on Arrakis. You speak only of possibilities.””

—

“Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man.”

—

“Do you wrestle with dreams?
Do you contend with shadows?
Do you move in a kind of sleep?
Time has slipped away.
Your life is stolen.
You tarried with trifles,
Victim of your folly.”

—

“Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place.”

—

“And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning ‘That path leads ever down into stagnation.”

—

“Superstitions sometimes have strange roots and stranger branchings.”

—

“The absence of a thing,” the Baron said, “this can be as deadly as the presence. The absence of air, eh? The absence of water? The absence of anything else we’re addicted to.”

—

“What senses do we lack that we cannot see or hear another world all around us?”

—

“The highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.”

—

“Science is made up of so many things that appear obvious after they are explained.”

—

“No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero.”

—

“It could be only the adab, the demanding memory that comes upon you of itself.”

—

“The vision made him want to freeze into immobility, but this, too, was action with its consequences.”

—

“Fear coursed through Paul. He felt suddenly alone and naked standing in dull yellow light within this ring of people. Prescience had fed his knowledge with countless experiences, hinted at the strongest currents of the future and the strings of decision that guided them, but this was the real-now. This was death hanging on an infinite number of minuscule mischances.”

—

“Each day, some time each hour, brings change.”

—

“That which makes a man superhuman is terrifying.”

—

“Walking a thing wire of peace with a measure of happiness.”

—

“The man without emotions is the one to fear. But deep emotions … ah, now, those can be bent to your needs.”

—

“Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.”

—

“But the test of a man isn’t what you think he’ll do. It’s what he actually does.”

—

“He seemed too submissive to Paul, but then the Sardaukar had never been prepared for such happenings as this day. They’d never known anything but victory which, Paul realized, could be a weakness in itself.”

—

“Isn’t it odd how we misunderstand the hidden unity of kindness and cruelty?”

—

“The Guild navigators, gifted with limited prescience, had made the fatal decision: they’d chosen always the clear, safe course that leads ever downward into stagnation.”

—

“The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it.”

—

“Before the lectures, though, he had to convince the Fremen. To understand how this came about, you must first understand the enormous single-mindedness, the innocence with which he approached any problem. He was not naive, he merely permitted himself no distractions.”

—

“It became apparent to the Fremen that Kynes was not a madman totally, just mad enough to be holy.”

—

“There is a fifth force which shaped religious belief, but its effect is so universal and profound that it deserves to stand alone. This is, of course, space travel – and in any discussion of religion, it deserves to be written thus:
SPACE TRAVEL!”

—

“Twenty delegates were recalled by their congregations. One committed suicide by stealing a space frigate and diving it into the sun.”

—

“Religion must remain an outlet for people who say to themselves, ‘I am not the kind of person I want to be.’ It must never sink into an assemblage of the self-satisfied.”

—

“To increase understanding is a laudable goal.”

—

“La, la, la – a Fremen cry of grief (“La” translates as ultimate denial, a “no” from which you cannot appeal.)”