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Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Quotes

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Famous Frank Herbert Quotes

“Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class - whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy. - Politics as Repeat Phenomenon: Bene Gesserit Training Manual”

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Book:Children of Dune
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“There exists a limit to the force even the most powerful may apply without destroying themselves. Judging this limit is the true artistry of government. Misuse of power is the fatal sin. The law cannot be a tool of vengeance, never a hostage, nor a fortification against the martyrs it has created. You cannot threaten any individual and escape the consequences.”

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Book:Dune Messiah
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“Safaris through ancestral memories teach me many things. The patterns, ahhh, the patterns. Liberal bigots are the ones who trouble me the most. I distrust extremes. Scratch a conservative and you find someone who prefers the past over any future. Scratch a liberal and find a closet aristocrat. It's true! Liberal governments always develop into aristocracies. The bureaucracies betray the true intent of people who from such governments. Right from the first, the little people who formed the governments which promised to equalize the social burdens found themselves suddenly in the hands of bureaucratic aristocracies. Of course, all bureaucracies follow this pattern, but what a hypocrisy to find this even under a communized banner.”

GovernmentConservativeHypocrisyLiberalHypocricyBureaucraciesAristocracies
Author:Frank Herbert
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“Don't give over all of your critical faculties to people in power, no matter how admirable those people may appear to be. Beneath the hero's facade you will find a human being who makes human mistakes. Enormous problems arise when human mistakes are made on the grand scale available to a superhero. And sometimes you run into another problem. It is demonstrable that power structures tend to attract people who want power for the sake of power and that a significant proportion of such people are imbalanced — in a word, insane.”

GovernmentPeaceFreedomLibertyPowerSocietyAuthorityLibertarianAnarchyCoercionStatePsychopathStatismVoluntaryismRegime
Author:Frank Herbert
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“If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.”

IfsThinkingGovernmentPoliticalCertainPoliticsWiseSubjectsMastersLibertarianThrivePopularityHelplessHelplessnessDespotsPower GovernmentPower Politics
Book:The Dosadi Experiment and The Eyes of Heisenberg: Two Classic Works of Science Fiction
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“Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class -- whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.”

IfsHas BeensGovernmentFormInterestKnownClassEndureFinancialPatternsThriveEmpiresBureaucracyRulingRoyaltyAristocracyHereditaryAristocratic
Book:Children of Dune
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“I hear the wind blowing across the desert and I see the moons of a winter night rising like great ships in the void. To them I make my vow: I will be resolute and make an art of government; I will balance my inherited past and become a perfect storehouse of my relic memories. And I will be known for kindliness more than for knowledge. My face will shine down the corridors of time for as long as humans exist.”

HumansLongArtGovernmentPastFacesNightMemoriesPerfectKnownWindBalanceMoonShiningWinterShipsDesertRisingVoidVowCorridorsResoluteRelicsWind BlowingKindlinessWinter Night
Book:Children of Dune
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