# Dune Messiah ## Metadata - Author: [[Frank Herbert]] - Full Title: Dune Messiah - Category: #source/books ## Highlights - As with all things sacred, it gives with one hand and takes with the other. ([Location 193](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=193)) - “A creature who has spent his life creating one particular representation of his selfdom will die rather than become the antithesis of that representation,” ([Location 461](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=461)) - “The Fremen are civil, educated and ignorant,” Scytale said. “They’re not mad. They’re trained to believe, not to know. Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.” ([Location 514](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=514)) ## New highlights added October 17, 2023 at 10:08 AM - “One who rules assumes irrevocable responsibility for the ruled. You are a husbandman. This demands, at times, a selfless act of love which may only be amusing to those you rule.” ([Location 563](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=563)) - To use raw power is to make yourself infinitely vulnerable to greater powers. ([Location 742](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=742)) - “The Atreides came,” Farok agreed. “The one we named Usul in our sietch, his private name among us. Our Muad’Dib, our Mahdi! And when he called for the Jihad, I was one of those who asked: ‘Why should I go to fight there? I have no relatives there.’ But other men went—young men, friends, companions of my childhood. When they returned, they spoke of wizardry, of the power in this Atreides savior. He fought our enemy, the Harkonnen. Liet-Kynes, who had promised us a paradise upon our planet, blessed him. It was said this Atreides came to change our world and our universe, that he was the man to make the golden flower blossom in the night.” ([Location 894](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=894)) - Note: This is one of those core representations where Paul's is depicted as more of villain than hero. - This one is garrulous, but deep, Scytale thought. ([Location 924](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=924)) - Note: Talking of Farok... Sounds like me XD - 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. ([Location 969](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=969)) - “Ideas are most to be feared when they become actions,” Paul said. ([Location 1341](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=1341)) - Truth suffers from too much analysis. —ANCIENT FREMEN SAYING ([Location 1364](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=1364)) - “Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it. Eventually, they lose touch with reality . . . and fall.” ([Location 1724](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=1724)) - “The wise man molds himself—the fool lives only to die.” ([Location 2025](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=2025)) - to endure oneself may be the hardest task in the universe.” ([Location 2040](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=2040)) - The flesh surrenders itself, he thought. Eternity takes back its own. Our bodies stirred these waters briefly, danced with a certain intoxication before the love of life and self, dealt with a few strange ideas, then submitted to the instruments of Time. What can we say of this? I occurred. I am not . . . yet, I occurred. ([Location 2208](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=2208)) - When a creature has developed into one thing, he will choose death rather than change into his opposite. ([Location 2247](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=2247)) - The pitfall of Bene Gesserit training, she reminded herself, lay in the powers granted: such powers predisposed one to vanity and pride. But power deluded those who used it. One tended to believe power could overcome any barrier . . . including one’s own ignorance. ([Location 2355](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=2355)) - What senses do we lack that we cannot see another world all around us? ([Location 2400](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=2400)) - No matter how exotic human civilization becomes, no matter the developments of life and society nor the complexity of the machine/human interface, there always come interludes of lonely power when the course of humankind, the very future of humankind, depends upon the relatively simple actions of single individuals. ([Location 2705](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=2705)) - He had the heady feeling here that he might still avoid the fate he could see so clearly along this path. But the crowd pushed him forward and he experienced the dizzy sense that he had lost his way, lost personal direction over his life. ([Location 2751](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=2751)) - Note: He being Paul - Growing older is to grow more wicked. ([Location 2799](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=2799)) - There was the feeling in him then that his body had become the manifestation of some power he could no longer control. He had become a non-being, a stillness which moved itself. At the core of the non-being, there he existed, allowing himself to be led through the streets of his city, following a track so familiar to his visions that it froze his heart with grief. ([Location 2872](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=2872)) - “What other talents have you, Bijaz?” Paul asked. “I know when we should leave,” Bijaz said. “It’s a talent few men have. There’s a time for endings—and that’s a good beginning. Let us begin to go, Usul.” ([Location 3002](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3002)) - Note: I love this... Knowing when to stop is even maybe more important than knowing when to start. - 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, consumed his energy. Elaborate euphemisms may conceal your intent to kill, but behind any use of power over another the ultimate assumption remains: “I feed on your energy.” ([Location 3053](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3053)) - “None of us has eyes,” Paul said. “They have taken my eyes, as well, but not my vision. ([Location 3108](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3108)) - Note: Context: post the stone burner attack in town - “You can’t build politics on love,” he said. “People aren’t concerned with love; it’s too disordered. They prefer despotism. Too much freedom breeds chaos. We can’t have that, can we? And how do you make despotism lovable?” ([Location 3202](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3202)) - “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.” ([Location 3251](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3251)) - Stilgar produced a brown spicepaper scroll, stepped forward. He began reading, a solemn flourish in his voice as though to hidden rhythms. He gave the words an incisive quality, clear and full of probity: ([Location 3281](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3281)) - Note: This is one of those firm juxtapositions of Stilgar's "de-evolution" from who we met and knew him as in the first book - strong, independent, and wise... Now he's Paul's right-hand lacky and couldn't be further from his roots... - “The law is the law,” Stilgar said, sensing Alia’s protest. He began quoting Fremen Law, interspersing his own comments on how the Law pertained. ([Location 3349](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3349)) - Note: Boom - a resurrection of rooted Fremen conviction! - “When we precipitate violence,” Paul said, “it’ll be when we have full control of it. Thank you, Stil; you played your part well. ([Location 3370](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3370)) - Note: Dangit, Stil! You had me in the first half! Great writing! Stilgar's arc has to be one of my favorites. - “The hearts of all men dwell in the same wilderness.” ([Location 3408](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3408)) - “You are the pursuer who doesn’t want to find what he pursues.” ([Location 3432](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3432)) - Note: Oh shiiiiiiiit! Man... Isnt this life for most? People tell themselves that theyre strong or purposeful, yet they they choose to be willfully ignorant to what's brewing within them. The dont wanto find it... That can be too painful... - “You hide your real purpose! You throw up a screen of words and they mean nothing!” ([Location 3499](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3499)) - Note: Ooooof! Heh, dont we all do this? Be more aware of this. - the time has come to substitute swords for words.” ([Location 3514](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3514)) - There exists a limit to the force even the most powerful may apply without destroying themselves. Judging this limit is the true artistry of government. Misuse of power is the fatal sin. The law cannot be a tool of vengeance, never a hostage, nor a fortification against the martyrs it has created. You cannot threaten any individual and escape the consequences. ([Location 3713](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3713)) - I think I tried to invent life, not realizing it’d already been invented.” ([Location 3739](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3739)) - Do not compete with what is happening. To compete is to prepare for failure. Do not be trapped by the need to achieve anything. This way, you achieve everything.” ([Location 3800](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3800)) - He’d lived a take-everything life, tried to create a universe in his own image. But the exultant universe was breaking across him at last with its silent waves. ([Location 3855](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=3855)) - Rather than face my failure, I would disappear within myself! ([Location 4164](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=4164)) - People are subordinate to government, but the ruled influence the rulers. ([Location 4195](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=4195)) - “Paul’s entire life was a struggle to escape his Jihad and its deification. At least, he’s free of it. He chose this!” ([Location 4215](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0011UGNDG&location=4215))