# Quote — Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune

> You think power may be the most unstable of all human achievements? Then what of the apparent exceptions to this inherent instability? Some families endure. Very powerful religious bureaucracies have been known to endure. Consider the relationship between faith and power. Are they mutually exclusive when each depends upon the other? The Bene Gesserit have been reasonably secure within the loyal walls of faith for thousands of years. But where has their power gone?

- Author: [Frank Herbert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert.md)
- Book: [God Emperor of Dune](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/god-emperor-of-dune.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#God_Emperor_of_Dune_(1981)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/god-emperor-of-dune/you-think-power

## More from this book

> The defiling of a god is an ancient human tradition. Why should I be an exception?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/god-emperor-of-dune/the-defiling-of-a-god.md)

> Odd as it may seem, great struggles such as the one you can see emerging from my journals are not always visible to the participants. Much depends on what people dream in the secrecy of their hearts. I have always been as concerned with the shaping of dreams as with the shaping of actions. Between the lines of my journals is the struggle with humankind's view of itself — a sweaty contest on a field where motives from our darkest past can well up out of an unconscious reservoir and become events with which we not only must live but contend. It is the hydra-headed monster which always attacks from your blind side. I pray, therefore, that when you have traversed my portion of the Golden Path you no longer will be innocent children dancing to music you cannot hear.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/god-emperor-of-dune/odd-as-it-may.md)

> It is difficult to live in the present, pointless to live in the future and impossible to live in the past.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/god-emperor-of-dune/it-is-difficult.md)