The gift of words is the gift of deception and illusion.
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.
They are not mad. They're trained to believe, not to know. Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.
Religion must remain an outlet for people who say to themselves, 'I am not the kind of person I want to be.' It must never sink into an assemblage of the self-satisfied.
But it's well known that repression makes a religion flourish.
All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.
In 1054, the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope excommunicated each other. That was the end of holiness for both churches.
Scientists seek the lawfulness of events. It is the task of Religion to fit man into this lawfulness.
When law and duty are one, united by religion, you never become fully conscious, fully aware of yourself. You are always a little less than an individual.
The Fremen have a simple, practical religion,β he said. βNothing about religion is simple.
The freman are civil, educated and ignorant. They are not mad. They are trained to believe not to know. Believe can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.
A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.
Highly organized research is guaranteed to produce nothing new.
You seldom learn the names of the truly wealthy and powerful. You see only their spokesmen. The political arena makes a few exceptions to this but does not reveal the full power structure.
Proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you this is something you have always known.
One learns from books and example only that certain things can be done. Actual learning requires that you do those things.
Ready comprehension is often a knee-jerk response and the most dangerous form of understanding. It blinks an opaque screen over your ability to learn. Be warned. Understand nothing. All comprehension is temporary.
Enemies make you stronger, allies make you weaker.
Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.