Frank Herbert

A good companion is one you wouldn't mind dying with.

Answers are a perilous grip on the universe. They can appear sensible yet explain nothing.

A man is a fool not to put everything he has, at any given moment, into what he is creating.

Mood?  What has mood to do with it?  You fight when the necessity arises — no matter the mood!  Mood's a thing for cattle or making love or playing the baliset. It's not for training.

Memory never recaptures reality.  Memory reconstructs.  All reconstructions change the original, becoming external frames of reference that inevitably fall short.

Justice?  Who asks for justice.  We make our own justice.  We make it here on Arrakis - win or die.  Let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms and the freedom to use them.

Good government never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern.  The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery.  The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.

Bureaucracy destroys initiative.  There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines.  Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept.  Who enjoys appearing inept?

Without change something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.

I must not 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.