Frank Herbert Quotes

Disaster is a natural part of my evolution toward tragedy and dissolution.

One sound blow will serve to undo us all.

And they that rule in England, in stately conclaves met, alas, alas for England they have no graves as yet.

No dictator can last forever. History shows that in the end, people around the dictator bring about change. Of course, a lot of high-ranking officials don't want change because they want to keep power. But there are other good people who want change. I believe they are waiting for the chance.

What opium is instilled into all disaster? It shows formidable as we approach it, but there is at last no rough rasping friction,but the most slippery sliding surfaces. We fall soft on a thought.

Disaster is rarely as pervasive as it seems from recorded accounts. The fact of being on the record makes it appear continuous and ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been sporadic both in time and place.

A man in power, once becoming obnoxious, his acts, good or bad, will work out his ruin.

It'll all end in tears and oil.

A strength to harm is perilous in the hand of an ambitious head.

Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.

It is not good to have a rule of many.

Pride and excess bring disaster for man.

The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny.

Well, when you look at a lot of science fiction novels they're asking questions about power. There are questions about what it means to have power and what are the long-term consequences of power.

Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.

He whom many fear, has himself many to fear.

Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon.

He who surpasses or subdues mankind, must look down on the hate of those below.

I would not like a king who could obey.

That king who through folly rashly oppresses his kingdom, (will), together with his relatives, ere long be deprived of his life and of his kingdom. As the lives of living creatures are destroyed by tormenting their bodies, even so the lives of kings are destroyed by their oppressing their kingdoms

It is weakness rather than wickedness which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power.

You are afraid of the one, I, of the few.... You are apprehensive of monarchy, I, of aristocracy.

The situation is extraordinary. It is militarism run stark mad. Unless someone acting for you can bring about a different understanding there is some day to be an awful cataclysm.

If a king did not, without tiring, inflict punishment on those deserving to be punished, the stronger would roast the weaker like fish on a spit.

… autocrat of half the world