Each life creates endless ripples.
Irreverence is a most necessary ingredient of religion. Not to speak of its importance in philosophy. Irreverence is the only way left to us for testing our universe.
The person who takes the banal and ordinary and illuminates it in a new way can terrify. We do not want our ideas changed.
If you live in bad faith, lies will appear to you like the truth.
When I need to identify rebels, I look for men with principles.
It must certainly be more dangerous to live in ignorance than to live with knowledge.
Governments can be useful to the governed only so long as inherent tendencies toward tyranny are restrained.
We can say that Maud’Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn.
When a creature has developed into one thing, he will choose death rather than change into his opposite.
Small souls who seek power over others first destroy the faith those others might have in themselves.
A requirement of creativity is that it contributes to change. Creativity keeps the creator alive.
Show me a completely smooth operation and I’ll show you someone who’s covering mistakes. Real boats rock.
What do you despise? By this are you truly known.
My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. ‘Something cannot emerge from nothing,’ he said. This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable ‘the truth’ can be.
When we try to conceal our innermost drives, the entire being screams betrayal.
When a wise man does not understand, he says: “I do not understand.” The fool and the uncultured are ashamed of their ignorance. They remain silent when a question could bring them wisdom.
Try to hold on to youth and it mocks you while it sprints away.
Give me the judgment of balanced minds in preference to laws every time. Codes and manuals create patterned behavior. All patterned behavior tends to go unquestioned, gathering destructive momentum.
A person needs new experiences. They jar something deep inside, allowing you to grow. Without them, it sleeps- seldom to awaken. The sleeper must awaken.
There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man – with human flesh.