Frank Herbert Quotes

Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.

When it comes to controlling human beings there is no better instrument than lies. Because, you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts ... Who knows what use they’ll make of you? Maybe you’ll help them to persuade people to buy things they don’t need, or hate things they know nothing about, or hold beliefs that make them easy to handle, or doubt the truths that might save them.

When it comes to controlling human beings, there is no better instrument than lies. Because you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts.

It is necessary for men to be deceived in religion.

What you don’t know, you can’t tell. Or made to tell.

...a truth you don't understand is more dangerous than a lie.

Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of 'The Giver': the world where there are no bad words and no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all.

Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie.

A man may be in as just possession of truth as of a city, and yet be forced to surrender.

The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.

What the power structure is afraid of is that we're going to learn to recognize the truth when we hear it.

History’s most important lesson is that it has not been possible to make coercion compatible with the truth.

There is no subjugation so perfect as that which keeps the appearance of freedom, for in that way one captures volition itself.

I am inclined to believe dictators. Not to is dangerous.

Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesize and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.

By exploiting envy and fear, politicians can portray themselves as the saviors and protectors of the public — doing and saying whatever is necessary to gain the support needed to remain in power.

In truth, opinion may be taken for understanding; understanding cannot be taken for opinion. How so? Surely because opinion may be deceived; understanding cannot be. If it could, it would not be understanding but opinion. For true understanding has not only certain truth, but the knowledge of truth.

Trump did not spring out of nowhere, and I was struck by how prescient writers like Alexis de Tocqueville and George Orwell and Hannah Arendt were about how those in power get to define what the truth is.

If you can make people believe lies are the facts, then you can control them.

To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle.

In the absence of truth, power is the only game in town.

The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.

When you're convinced that you're right and you believe that you have the license to do anything because you're right, you can be bossy and you can be dangerous. You can be oppressive. You can be a tyrant.

It is dangerous for a ruler to trust others. He who trusts others can be manipulated by others.

Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.