Dune Messiah

There was a man so wise

He jumped into

A sandy place

And burnt out both his eyes!

And when he knew his eyes were gone,

He offered no complaint.

He summoned up a vision

And made himself a saint.

“’Rulers are notoriously cynical where religions are concerned. Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government?’”

What is more ridiculous than a Death Commando transformed into a priest?

When a creature has developed into one thing, he will choose death rather than change into his opposite.

"'...What little information we have about the old times, the pittance of data which the Butlerians left us, Korba has brought it for you. Start with the Genghis Khan.' 'Ghenghis . . . Khan? Was he of the Sardaukar, m'Lord?' 'Oh, long before that. He killed . . . perhaps four million.' 'He must've had formidable weaponry to kill that many, Sire. Lasbeams, perhaps, or . . .' 'He didn't kill them himself, Stil. He killed the way I kill, by sending out his legions. There's another emperor I want you to note in passing--a Hitler. He killed more than six million. Pretty good for those days.' 'Killed . . . by his legions?' Stilgar asked. 'Yes.' 'Not very impressive statistics, m'Lord.' "

The greatest palatinate earl and the lowliest stipendiary serf share the same problem. You cannot hire a mentat or any other intellect to solve it for you. There's no writ of inquest or calling of witnesses to provide answers. No servant — or disciple — can dress the wound. You dress it yourself or continue bleeding for all to see.

Every civilization must contend with an unconscious force which can block, betray or countermand almost any conscious intention of the collectivity.

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."

Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it. Eventually, they lose touch with reality... and fall.

“’Cynicism! That, no doubt is a greater crime than heresy.’”

“’What religion and self-interest cannot hide, governments can.’”

There are problems in this universe for which there are no answers. Nothing. Nothing can be done.

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.

“’Sacred! As with all things sacred, it gives with one hand and takes with the other.’”

What is justice? Two forces collide. Each may have the right in his own sphere. And here's where an Emperor commands orderly solutions. Those collisions he cannot prevent — he solves. [How?], in the simplest way: he decides.

Often I must speak other than I think. That is called diplomacy.

“’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.’”

What? Deny my own oracle? How can I when I've seen it fulfilled thousands of times? People call it a power, a gift. It's an affliction! It won't let me leave my life where I found it!

“’I was brought to this cell by your Priests. As with all Priests, you learned early to call the truth heresy.’”

Ahh, but the dice cannot read their own spots.

“’Don’t fear me. Forget mystery and accept love. There’s no mystery about love. It comes from life. Can’t you feel that?’”

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, depends upon the relatively simple actions of single individuals.

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.

“’An offer is only as good as the real thing it buys.’”

“’We must not grieve for those dear to us before their passing.’ ‘Before their passing. Tell me, little sister, what is before?’”

“’Reason is the first victim of strong emotion.’”

What senses do we lack that we cannot see another world all around us?

He will not be found, yet all men will find him.

He is the fool saint,

The golden stranger living forever

On the edge of reason.

Let your guard fall and he is there!

“’Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.’”

Such a rich store of myths enfolds Paul Muad'dib, the Mentat Emperor, and his sister, Alia, it is difficult to see the real persons behind these veils. But there were, after all, a man born Paul Atreides and a woman born Alia. Their flesh was subject to space and time. And even though their oracular powers placed them beyond the usual limits of time and space, they came from human stock. They experienced real events which left real traces upon a real universe. To understand them, it must be seen that their catastrophe was the catastrophe of all mankind. This work is dedicated, then, not to Muad'dib or his sister, but to their heirs — to all of us.

You do not take from this universe. It grants you what it will.

Any delusions of Free Will he harbored now must be merely the prisoner rattling his cage. His curse lay in the fact that he saw the cage. He saw it!

Four things cannot be hidden — love, smoke, a pillar of fire and a man striding across the open bled.

I have said: "Blow out the lamp! Day is here!" And you keep saying: "Give me a lamp so I can find the day."

Here lies a toppled god —

His fall was not a small one.

We did but build his pedestal,

A narrow and a tall one.

The sequential nature of actual events is not illuminated with lengthy precision by the powers of prescience except under the most extraordinary circumstances. The oracle grasps incidents cut out of the historic chain. Eternity moves. It inflicts itself upon the oracle and the supplicant alike. Let Muad'dib's subjects doubt his majesty and his oracular visions. Let them deny his powers. Let them never doubt Eternity.

Was it defeat to choose a lesser evil?

Do not be trapped by the need to achieve anything. This way, you achieve everything.

“To come under siege was the inevitable fate of power.”

If you need something to worship, then worship life — all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!