The only guarantee in life is death, and the only guarantee in death is its shocking unpredictability.
No matter the challenge, his people knew how to endure.
My child, human love is an infinite resource. No matter how many times it is expended, whether stolen or given away, love can grow again – like a flower from a bulb – and fill your heart.
Do you know about the horrors during the Time of Titans? Or the Hrethgir Rebellions?” “I’ve read my father’s memoirs in great detail – ” “I don’t mean Agamemnon’s propaganda. Have you learned the real history?
I intend to create a new work of art, all my own. A still life, of sorts. You three will be vital parts of the process. Rejoice in your good fortune.” In the sterile environment of the laboratory, with the cold assistance of his personal robot guards, Erasmus proceeded to vivisect the trio of victims, oblivious to their screams. “I want to get to the heart of the matter,” he quipped, “the lifeblood of it.
I will take their ridiculous peace and shove it down their cold metal throats.
You will have to rebuild an entire city.” Xavier looked at Rhengalid with little sympathy. “But you can do that only because you are alive and free.
It is easy to look backward and cast blame on others, but more difficult to gaze ahead and take responsibility for your own decisions and your own future. – GRIFFIN HARKONNEN, final dispatch from Arrakis It.
The narrow mind erects stubborn barriers,” her mother had once told her. “But against those barriers, words are formidable weapons.
Vor laughed, proud of his place here. He quoted what he’d been taught all his life. “I am the pinnacle of humanity – a trustee of Omnius, the son of General Agamemnon.
So I have failed you?” “Not at all. Your human frailties are not your fault.
Erasmus was like Serena in a sense: he frequently needed to prune and weed the human race in his own garden.
Seurat’s flowmetal face gleamed in the lights from his update ship’s cockpit. “Then I regret having been such an excellent teacher.
But our long struggle is held together by the slender threads of heroes and myths.
If you are born to power, you must prove you deserve it through good works – or give it up. To do any less is to act without conscience.
Truth belongs to those who control that perspective.
Suspicions have a way of becoming “facts,” even if they have no basis in truth.
Crossing the line from friend to enemy takes only a small step. The opposite journey, however, is far more difficult. – Zensunni wisdom of the desert.
We can never atone for all the harm we cause in our lifetimes. We each make decisions based on personal priorities. In the process, people are invariably shunted aside. Someone suffers. – teaching of the new Philosophical Academy.
With few ambitions, most people allowed efficient machines to perform everyday tasks for them. Gradually, humans ceased to think, or dream... or truly live.
A man cannot drink from a mirage, but he can drown in it.