Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
10 Favorite Lines:
Among my father’s most important messages were that governments lie to protect themselves and they make incredibly stupid decisions.
To use raw power is to make yourself infinitely vulnerable to greater powers.
More than one government has fallen because people discovered the real extent of official wealth.
“You don’t back people into a corner… Not if you want them to remain peaceful.”
“Deceit is a tool of statecraft.”
Our goal is not to rule, but… to free ourselves from all restraints imposed by dependency and government.
“Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it. Eventually, they lose touch with reality . . . and fall.”
Here lies a toppled god— His fall was not a small one. We did but build his pedestal, A narrow and a tall one.
…power deluded those who used it. One tended to believe power could overcome any barrier . . . including one’s own ignorance.
“Law—our highest idea and our basest nature.”