Quotes by Frank Herbert

About Frank Herbert:

Frank Patrick Herbert, Jr. was an American science fiction writer best known for the novel Dune and its five sequels. Though he became famous for science fiction, he was also a newspaper journalist, photographer, short story writer, book reviewer, ecological consultant and lecturer.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

All of history is a malleable instrument in my hands. Ohhh, I have accumulated all of these pasts and I possess every fact—yet the facts are mine to use as I will and, even using them truthfully, I change them.

Frank Herbert

No matter how much we ask after the truth, self-awareness is often unpleasant. We do not feel kindly toward the Truthsayer.

Frank Herbert

Caution is the path to mediocrity. Gliding, passionless mediocrity is all that most people think they can achieve.

Frank Herbert

Only fools prefer the past!

Frank Herbert

I never thought it would be easy to serve God," she said. "I just didn't think it would be this hard.

Frank Herbert

The truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to express it.

Frank Herbert

Small souls who seek power over others first destroy the faith those others might have in themselves.

Frank Herbert

In the wrong hands,” Leto said, “monolithic centralized power is a dangerous and volatile instrument.” - “And your hands are the right ones?

Frank Herbert

Prisons are needed only to provide the illusion that courts and police are effective. They’re a kind of job insurance.

Frank Herbert

When I need to identify rebels, I look for men with principles

Frank Herbert

We had something few experience. We were joined in our strengths rather than in our weaknesses.

Frank Herbert

I point out to you, Marcus Claire Luyseyal, a lesson from past over-machined societies which you appear not to have learned. The devices themselves condition the users to employ each other the way they employ machines.

Frank Herbert

Military foolishness is ultimately suicidal. They believe that by risking death they pay the price of any violent behavior against enemies of their own choosing. They have the invader mentality, that false sense of freedom from responsibility for you...

Frank Herbert

This wise man observed that wealth is a tool of freedom. But the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery.

Frank Herbert

Technology tends toward avoidance of risks by investors. Uncertainty is ruled out if possible. People generally prefer the predictable. Few recognize how destructive this can be, how it imposes severe limits on variability and thus makes whole popula...

Frank Herbert

Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appear...

Frank Herbert

How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him.

Frank Herbert

Facing your fears robs them of their power

Frank Herbert

One of the key characteristics of an elite corps is its susceptibility to those more powerful than itself. Elite power is naturally attracted to a power hierarchy and fits itself neatly, obediently into the one that promises the most personal benefit...

Frank Herbert

In 1054, the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope excommunicated each other. That was the end of holiness for both churches.

Frank Herbert

Author Bio

  • NameFrank Herbert
  • DescriptionAmerican writer
  • AliasesFranklin Patrick Herbert, Jr.
  • BornOctober 8, 1920
  • DiedFebruary 11, 1986
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWriter; Novelist; Photographer
  • WorksDune
  • AwardsNebula Award