God Emperor of Dune

• Author: Frank Herbert
• Full Title: God Emperor of Dune
• Tags: Books #science-fiction

Highlights

• They say they seek security and quiet, the condition they call peace. Even as they speak, they create the seeds of turmoil and violence. If they find their quiet security, they squirm in it. How boring they find it. Look at them now. Look at what they do while I record these words. Hah! I give them enduring eons of enforced tranquility which plods on and on despite their every effort to escape into chaos. Believe me, the memory of Leto’s Peace shall abide with them forever. They will seek their quiet security thereafter only with extreme caution and steadfast preparation. (Location 3548)
• wealth is a tool of freedom. But the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery.” (Location 4554)
• A leader tries to perpetuate the conditions which demand his leadership. (Location 7186)
• “Most believe that a satisfactory future requires a return to an idealized past, a past which never in fact existed.” (Location 7328)
• This plastic memory seeks to return to its ancient shape, the tribal society. It is all around you—the feudatory, the diocese, the corporation, the platoon, the sports club, the dance troupes, the rebel cell, the planning council, the prayer group . . . each with its master and servants, its host and parasites. And the swarms of alienating devices (including these very words!) tend eventually to be enlisted in the argument for a return to “those better times.” I despair of teaching you other ways. You have square thoughts which resist circles. (Location 7396)