34 of the Best Dune Quotes - Learning From Literature

Dune is widely regarded as one of the best science fiction novels of all time, winning both the Nebula Award and Hugo Award (the top awards possible for outstanding science fiction novels). If you are just discovering the universe, you can read more about Dune here.

The original Dune series has many memorable and wise sayings…

Here’s 34 of the best Dune quotes:

Life

“The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.”
– Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam

“A person needs new experiences. They jar something deep inside, allowing him to grow. Without change something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens.”
– Duke Leto Atreides

“The wise man molds himself—the fool lives only to die.”
– Alia

Social

“When strangers meet, great allowances should be made for differences of custom and training.”
– Lady Jessica from Wisdom of Arrakis

“Spend energies on those who make you strong. Energy spent on weaklings drags you to doom.”
– The Dortjula Record

Warnings

“Never follow a leader without asking your own questions.”
– Bene Gesserit Axiom

“How easy it was to mistake clear reasoning for correct reasoning.”
– Hayt the Mentat

“Reason is the first victim of strong emotion.”
– Scytale the Face Dancer

“Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.”
– Unknown

“The proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence. On that path lies danger.”
– Margot Lady Fenrig

“We tend to become like the worst in those we oppose.”
– Bene Gesserit Coda

“The price we paid was the price men have always paid for achieving a paradise in this life — we went soft, we lost our edge.”
-from “Muad’Dib: Conversations” by Princess Irulan

“If all those around you believe some particular thing, you will soon be tempted to share in that belief.”
– Unknown

“When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong – faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it’s too late.”
– Bene Gesserit proverb

Fear

“Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
– Bene Gesserit “Litany Against Fear”

Philosophical

“There was a man who sat each day looking out through a narrow vertical opening where a single board had been removed from a tall wooden fence. Each day a wild ass of the desert passed outside the fence and across the narrow opening—first the nose, then the head, the forelegs, the long brown back, the hindlegs, and lastly the tail. One day, the man leaped to his feet with the light of discovery in his eyes and he shouted for all who could hear him: “It is obvious! The nose causes the tail!”
– Stories of the Hidden Wisdom from the Oral History of Rakis

“Anything outside yourself, this you can see and apply your logic to it. But it’s a human trait that when we encounter personal problems, these things most deeply personal are the most difficult to bring out for our logic to scan. We tend to flounder around, blaming everything but the actual, deep-seated thing that’s really chewing on us.”
– Lady Jessica

“Do not be trapped by the need to achieve anything. This way, you achieve everything.”
– Hayt the Ghola

Environmental

“The highest function of ecology is understanding consequences.”
– Pardot Keynes

“Man is but a pebble dropped in a pool.”
– Tleilaxu Belief

“If you need something to worship, then worship life – all life, every last crawling bit of it! We’re all in this beauty together!”
– Paul Muad’Dib Atreides

Patience

“Use the first moments in study. You may miss many an opportunity for quick victory this way, but the moments of study are insurance of success. Take your time and be sure.”
– Duncan Idaho

Power

“Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it. Eventually, they lose touch with reality … and fall.”
– Edric the Guild Steersman

“Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.”
– Missionaria Protectiva

Change

“For what do you hunger, Lord?” Moneo ventured. “For a humankind which can make truly long-term decisions. Do you know the key to that ability, Moneo?” “You have said it many times, Lord. It is the ability to change your mind.”
– conversation between God Emperor Leto II and Moneo

“If you must label the absolute, use its proper name: Temporary.”
– God Emperor Leto II

“Just as individuals are born, mature, breed, and die, so do societies and civilizations and governments.”
– Paul Muad’Dib Atreides

Leadership

“A great man doesn’t seek to lead. He is called to it.”
– Duke Leto Atreides

“A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel.”
– Duke Leto Atreides

Anger

“Anger is one thing, violence another.”
– Count Fenrig

Injustice

“The convoluted wording of legalisms grew up around the necessity to hide from ourselves the violence we intend toward each other. Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. You have done violence to him”
-Addenda to Orders in Council The Emperor Paul Muad’dib

“Privilege becomes arrogance. Arrogance promotes injustice. The seeds of ruin blossom.”
– God Emperor Leto II

Trust

“Do actions agree with words? There’s your measure of reliability. Never confine yourself to the words.”
– Unknown

Political

“Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual.”
– “Words of Muad’dib” by Princess Irulan

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