All Quotes

"“’Reason is the first victim of strong emotion.’”"

"“’Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.’”"

"“To come under siege was the inevitable fate of power.”"

"“’What religion and self-interest cannot hide, governments can.’”"

"“’Rulers are notoriously cynical where religions are concerned. Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government?’”"

"“’An offer is only as good as the real thing it buys.’”"

"“’We must not grieve for those dear to us before their passing.’ ‘Before their passing. Tell me, little sister, what is before?’”"

"“’Don’t fear me. Forget mystery and accept love. There’s no mystery about love. It comes from life. Can’t you feel that?’”"

"“’Government cannot be religious and self-assertive at the same time. Religious experience needs a spontaneity which laws inevitably suppress. And you cannot govern without laws. Your laws eventually must replace morality, replace conscience, replace even the religion by which you think to govern. Sacred ritual must spring from praise and holy yearnings which hammer out a significant morality. Government, on the other hand, is a cultural organism particularly attractive to doubts, questions and contentions. I see the day coming when ceremony must take the place of faith and symbolism replaces morality.’”"

"Muad'Dib's teachings have become the playground of scholastics, of the superstitious and the corrupt. He taught a balanced way of life, a philosophy with which a human can meet problems arising from an ever-changing universe. He said humankind is still evolving, in a process which will never end. He said this evolution moves on changing principles which are known only to eternity. How can corrupted reasoning play with such an essence?"

"I give you the desert chameleon, whose ability to blend itself into the background tells you all you need to know about the roots of ecology and the foundations of a personal identity."

"The Universe is God's. It is one thing, a wholeness against which all separations may be identified. Transient life, even the self-aware and reasoning life which we call sentient, holds only fragile trusteeship on any portion of the wholeness."

"The one-eyed view of our universe says you must not look far afield for problems. Such problems may never arrive. Instead, tend to the wolf within your fences. The packs ranging outside may not even exist."

"Travail and persecution are the lot of all who follow me."

"Either we abandon the long-honored Theory of Relativity, or we cease to believe that we can engage in continued accurate prediction of the future. Indeed, knowing the future raises a host of questions which cannot be answered under conventional assumptions unless one first projects an Observer outside of Time and, second, nullifies all movement. If you accept the Theory of Relativity, it can be shown that Time and the Observer must stand still in relationship to each or inaccuracies will intervene. This would seem to say that it is impossible to engage in accurate prediction of the future. How, then, do we explain the continued seeking after this visionary goal by respected scientists? How, then, do we explain Muad'Dib?"

"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."

"This was Muad'Dib's achievement: He saw the subliminal reservoir of each individual as an unconscious bank of memories going back to the primal cell of our common genesis. Each of us, he said, can measure out his distance from that common origin. Muad'Dib set himself the task of integrating genetic memory into ongoing evaluation. Thus did he break through Time's veils, making a single thing of the future and the past. That was Muad'Dib's creation embodied in his son and his daughter."

"Atrocity is recognized as such by victim and perpetrator alike, by all who learn about it at whatever remove. Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity. It is self-perpetuating upon itself — a barbarous form of incest. Whoever commits atrocity also commits those future atrocities thus bred."

"Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter."

"Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts."

"There are no such things as incurable, there are only things for which man has not found a cure."

"To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am."

"I am quite sure that in the hereafter she will take me by the hand and lead me to my proper seat."

"I am interested in physical medicine because my father was. I am interested in medical research because I believe in it. I am interested in arthritis because I have it."

"When beggars and shoeshine boys, barbers and beauticians can tell you how to get rich it is time to remind yourself that there is no more dangerous illusion than the belief that one can get something for nothing."

"Vote for the man who promises least; he'll be the least disappointing."

"A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren’t still there, he’s no longer a political leader."

"I'm not smart. I try to observe. Millions saw the apple fall but Newton was the one who asked why."

"A speculator is a man who observes the future, and acts before it occurs."

"In the Baruch proposal our government suggested the creation of the International Authority by the United Nations to which would be given a complete monopoly of all atomic installations, materials and stockpiles. This authority should be given power of inspection and power to call for the punishment of violators."

"If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

"Anyone taken as an individual is tolerably sensible—as a member of a crowd, he at once becomes a blockhead."

"It will fluctuate."

"Happy and blessed birthday to every lover, and may love bring us together, and may the world hear us."

"Today we celebrate and light candles, renewing the days of happiness and love within us, and we converse in sweet, pure, and delightful affection, drawing the present to the days of our past. Joy on your birthday, my dear, may you always be in my heart."

"Today is a special day, it’s my birthday with my life partner"

"Every year you are the most beautiful thing that has ever happened to me,” and “May you always be my support in this world, my darling.”"

"On this day, you became my life, my hope, my destiny in this world, my refuge, and the love of my life. Every year, you are the most beautiful thing that has ever happened to me."

"If I could go back in time a thousand times, I would choose you every time, because every beat of my heart cries out your name."

"There is still no cure for the common birthday."

"I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust, I forgot to ask that they be years of youth."

"Dylan Thomas"

"these nights we hear the horses running in the rain"

"Romance novels are birthday cake and life is often peanut butter and jelly. I think everyone should have lots of delicious romance novels lying around for those times when the peanut butter of life gets stuck to the roof of your mouth."

"Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good."

"All the world's a birthday cake, / So take a piece but not too much."

"You who wish to celebrate a birthday, inquire first who was born. One’s true birthday is when one enters into the Eternal Being which shines forever without birth or death."

"Of all days, on one’s birthday one should mourn one’s fall (into samsara). To celebrate it as a festival is like adorning and glorifying a corpse. To seek one’s Self and merge in it is wisdom."

"Birthdays weigh heavily on one's self-esteem. Early in the morning especially."

"A birthday:—and now a day that rose With much of hope, with meaning rife— A thoughtful day from dawn to close: The middle day of human life."