Dune Messiah Quotes

“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
from History of Muad'dib”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

“These are illusions of popular history which successful religion must promote: Evil men never prosper; only the brave deserve the fair; honesty is the best policy; actions speak louder than words; virtue always triumpths; a good deed is its own rewards; any bad human can be reformed; religious talismans protect one from demon possession; only females understand the ancient mysteries; the rich are doomed to unhappiness”
― Frank Herbert, Children of Dune

“I succumbed to the lure of the oracle, he thought.
And he sensed that succumbing to this lure might be to fix himself upon a single-track life. Could it be, he wondered, that the oracle didn't tell the future? Could it be that the oracle made the future?”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

“Dune Messiah is the most misunderstood of Frank Herbert's novels. The reasons for this are as fascinating and complex as the renowned author himself.”
― Brian Herbert

“Among my father's most important messages were that governments lie to protect themselves and they make incredibly stupid decisions.”
― Brian Herbert

“Any delusions of Free Will he harbored now must be merely the prisoner rattling his cage. His curse lay in the fact that he saw the cage. He saw it!”
― Frank Herbert

“...heroic leaders often made mistakes ... mistakes that were amplified by the number of followers who were held in thrall by charisma. (Introduction to Dune Messiah)”
― Brian Herbert

“In Dune and Dune Messiah, he [Frank Herbert] was cautioning against pride and overconfidence, that form of narcissism described in Greek tragedies that invariably led to the great fall.”
― Brian Herbert

“The flesh surrenders itself, he thought. Eternity takes back its own. Our bodies stirred these waters briefly, danced with a certain intoxication before the love of life and self, dealt with a few strange ideas, then submitted to the instruments of Time. What can we say of this? I occurred. I am not... yet, I occurred.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

“o bitter stench of funeral-still for Muad'dib.
No knell nor solemn rite to free the mind
From avaricious shadows.
He is the fool saint,
The golden stranger living forever
On the edge of reason.
Let your guard fall and he is there!
His crimson peace and sovereign pallor
Strike into our universe on prophetic webs
To the verge, of a quiet glance -- there!
Out of bristling star-jungles:
Mysterious, lethal, an oracle without eyes,
Catspaw of prophecy, whose voice never dies!
Shai-hulud, he awaits thee upon a strand
Where couples walk and fix, eye to eye,
The delicious ennui of love.
He strides through the long cavern of time,
Scattering the fool-self of his dream.
-The Ghola's Hymn”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

“I told him that to endure oneself may be the hardest task in the universe. You cannot hire a wise man or any other intellect to solve it for you. There's no writ of inquest or calling of witness to provide answers. No servant or disciple can dress the wound. You dress it yourself or continue bleeding for all to see.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

“Giyinip güne başlamak için yataktan kalktıklarında Chani, "Halk senin ne kadar sevgi dolu olduğunu bilse..." dedi.
Ama Paul'ün ruh hali değişmişti. "Sevgi üzerinden siyaset yapılmaz," dedi. "Halkın istediği şey sevgi değildir, çünkü sevgi fazla değişkendir. Halk despotizmi yeğler. Özgürlüğün fazlası kaosa yol açar. Kaosa izin veremeyiz, değil mi? Despotizmi de nasıl sevilir hale getirebilirsin ki?"
Chani eşarbını bağlarken "Sen despot değilsin!" diye karşı çıktı. "Senin kuralların adil."
"Ahh, kanunlar," dedi Paul. Pencereye gidip, dışarıya bakacakmış gibi perdeleri açtı. "Kanun nedir ki? Kontrol mü? Kanunlar kaosu süzgeçten geçirir; böylece ne elde edilir? Sükunet mi? Kanun... en yüce idealimiz ve en temel doğamızdır. Kanunları fazla incelemeyeceksin. Yoksa mantık kılıfına uydurulmuş yorumlar, hukuk safsataları ve taraflıca seçilmiş örnekler bulursun. Sükunet bulursun ki bu ölümün bir başka adıdır, o kadar.”
― Frank Herbert

“When your actions describe a system of evil consequences, you should be judged by those consequences and not by your explanations. It is thus we should judge Muad'Dib.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

“What was it the pilgrims sought? Paul wondered. They said they came to a holy place. But they must know the universe contained no Eden source, no Tupile for the soul. They called Arrakis the place of the unknown where all mysteries were explained. This was a link between their universe and the next. And the frightening thing was that they appeared to go away satisfied…. What do they find here? Paul asked himself. (Dune Messiah Page 82)”
― FRANK HERBERT, Dune Messiah

“He began to realize that there might be a certain fastidious courtesy in dying without a trace - no remains, nothing, and an entire planet for a tomb.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

“She hated the water then, inspired by the worm's fear. Water, once the spirit-soul of Arrakis, had become a poison. Water brought pestilence. Only the desert was clean.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah