# Quote — Frank Herbert, Dune

> The thing the ecologically illiterate don't realize about an ecosystem is that it's a system. A system! A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche. A system has order, a flowing from point to point. If something dams the flow, order collapses. The untrained might miss that collapse until it was too late. That's why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.

- Author: [Frank Herbert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert.md)
- Book: [Dune](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Appendices) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/the-thing-the

## More from this book

> The more I study the phenomenon of human creativity, the more mysterious it seems. Their whole process of innovation is elusive, but is critical for us to understand. If we fail in this endeavor, thinking machines are doomed.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/the-more-i-study.md)

> The future, the past and the present are intertwined, a weave that forms any point in time.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/the-future-the.md)

> Science, under the guise of benefiting mankind, is a dangerous force that often tampers with natural processes, without recognizing the consequences. Under such a scenario, mass destruction is inevitable.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/science-under-the.md)