Frank Herbert
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...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth8 October 1920
CityTacoma, WA
CountryUnited States of America
men perfection risk
Only gods can safely risk perfection ... it's a dangerous thing for a man.
machinery gross ambiguous
Words are such gross machinery, so primitive and ambiguous.
dying way violence
Prophets have a way of dying by violence.
blow knives decision
Prophecy and prescience--How can they be put to the test in the face of unanswered questions? Consider: How much is actual prediction ... and how much is the prophet shaping the future to fit the prophecy? What are the harmonics inherent in the act of prophecy? Does the prophet see the future or does he see a line of weakness, a fault or cleavage that he may shatter with words or decisions as a diamond-cutter shatters his gem with a blow of the knife?
father son extensions
What is the son but an extension of the father?
self law names
In all of my universe I have seen no law of nature, unchanging and inexorable. This universe presents only changing relationships which are somtimes seen as laws by short-lived awareness. These fleshy sensoria which we call self are ephemera withering in the blaze of infinity, fleetingly aware of temporary conditions which confine our activities and change as our activities change. If you must label the absolute, use its proper name: Temporary.
belief shakes supreme
The act of saying that things exist that cannot be described in words shakes a universe where words are the supreme belief.
agreement wish tradition
Words can carry any burden we wish. All that's required is agreement and a tradition upon which to build.
coffee moving reality
A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel... he must lay the best coffee hearth to attract the finest men... a good ruler has to learn his world's language... it's different for every world... the language of the rocks and growing things... the language you don't hear just with your ears... the Mystery of Life... not a problem to solve, but a reality to experience... Understanding must move with the flow of the process.
past pillow
The past is no farther away than your pillow.
fall past air
My lungs taste the air of Time,Blown past falling sands...
power wealth mask
We never get far from wealth and all of its masks when we deal with power.
night tunnels tomorrow
The night is a tunnel ... a hole into tomorrow.
cutting lines problem
We are generalists. You can't draw neat lines around planet-wide problems. Planetology is a cut-and-fit science.