Top 70 Brian Herbert Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The willingness to learn is a choice.”

— Brian Herbert

2. “The only guarantee in life is death, and the only guarantee in death is its shocking unpredictability.”

— Brian Herbert

3. “In the heat of battle, heroes emerge, sometimes from the most unlikely of sources.”

— Brian Herbert

4. “How will I be remembered by my children? This is the true measure of a man.”

— Brian Herbert

5. “Fear invites aggression – do not show it to a predator.”

— Brian Herbert

6. “Freedom is an elusive concept. Some men hold themselves prisoner even when they have the power to do as they please and go where they choose, while others are free in their hearts, even as shackles restrain them.”

— Brian Herbert

7. “Wounds make better lessons than lectures.”

— Brian Herbert

8. “Simplicity is the most difficult of all concepts.”

— Brian Herbert

9. “The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth. – Bene Gesserit Precept I.”

— Brian Herbert

10. “Life is filled with tests, one after another, and if you don’t recognize them, you are certain to fail the most important ones.”

— Brian Herbert

11. “It is astonishing how foolish humans can be in groups, especially when they follow their leader without question.”

— Brian Herbert

12. “The man who sees an opportunity and does nothing is asleep with his eyes open.”

— Brian Herbert

13. “No person can ever know everything that is in the heart of another. We are all Face Dancers in our souls.”

— Brian Herbert

14. “My Sihaya,’ he said as he held her, ‘I have loved you for five thousand years.”

— Brian Herbert

15. “My child, human love is an infinite resource. No matter how many times it is expended, whether stolen or given away, love can grow again – like a flower from a bulb – and fill your heart.”

— Brian Herbert

16. “Let the future remain uncertain, for that is the canvas to receive our desires.”

— Brian Herbert

17. “We humans exist on hope. It’s what separates us from thinking machines.”

— Brian Herbert

18. “It is easy to look backward and cast blame on others, but more difficult to gaze ahead and take responsibility for your own decisions and your own future. – GRIFFIN HARKONNEN, final dispatch from Arrakis It.”

— Brian Herbert

19. “Opportunities are a tricky crop, with tiny flowers that are difficult to see and even more difficult to harvest.”

— Brian Herbert

20. “The greatest relevancy can become irrelevant in the space of a heartbeat.”

— Brian Herbert

21. “Let pressure pass over and through you. That way you can’t be harmed by it.”

— Brian Herbert

22. “There is no man so blind as one who has made up his mind.”

— Brian Herbert

23. “Facts mean nothing when they are preempted by appearance. Do not underestimate the power of impression over reality.”

— Brian Herbert

24. “The tapestry of the universe is vast and complex, with infinite patterns. While threads of tragedy may form the primary weave, humanity with its undaunted optimism still manages to embroider small designs of happiness and love.”

— Brian Herbert

25. “The first step in innovation is to know that a thing can be created. After that, the rest is a matter of detail.”

— Brian Herbert

26. “An ignorant friend is worse than a learned foe.”

— Brian Herbert

27. “She suspected that Iblis Ginjo was a dangerous, duplicitous man, but saw no one more qualified to take the Jihad where it needed to go. For his own reasons, he did, after all, espouse the same cause as her Sorceresses: the utter annihilation of thinking machines. Iblis would, however, require the closest sort of scrutiny and would have to be handled with excruciating care.”

— Brian Herbert

28. “Some people consider facts to be dangerous things that must be locked away and carefully guarded. But I consider mysteries a far greater threat. We should seek answers wherever possible, regardless of the consequences. – GILBERTUS ALBANS, secret Erasmus dialogues.”

— Brian Herbert

29. “Poritrin nobles professed to follow gentle, bucolic Navachristianity, but their core beliefs did not extend to their daily lives. They had their festivals, and embraced religious trappings, but the Poritrin upper classes did little to demonstrate their true faith.”

— Brian Herbert

30. “Your outrageous and reckless chaos is the only reason you are able to beat me in any strategy game,” Seurat said. “It certainly has nothing to do with your innate skills.”

— Brian Herbert

31. “A winner has more skills than a loser,” Vor said, “no matter how you define the competition.”

— Brian Herbert

32. “Every hammer has the innate capacity to strike a nail. Every human mind has the innate capacity for greatness. But not every hammer is properly used, nor is every human mind.”

— Brian Herbert

33. “Love is the highest achievement to which any human may aspire. It is an emotion that encompasses the full depth of heart, mind, and soul.”

— Brian Herbert

34. “Never underestimate the power of the human mind to believe what it wants to believe, no matter the conflicting evidence. – Caedmon Erb, Politics and Reality.”

— Brian Herbert

35. “Erasmus was like Serena in a sense: he frequently needed to prune and weed the human race in his own garden.”

— Brian Herbert

36. “Dhartha’s deep blue eyes flashed. “This is not about pride, Aurelius Venport. This is only about killing a pest of the desert.”

— Brian Herbert

37. “Among my father’s most important messages were that governments lie to protect themselves and they make incredibly stupid decisions.”

— Brian Herbert

38. “Do you know about the horrors during the Time of Titans? Or the Hrethgir Rebellions?” “I’ve read my father’s memoirs in great detail – ” “I don’t mean Agamemnon’s propaganda. Have you learned the real history?”

— Brian Herbert

39. “Jool Noret, we admire you. You are the scourge of Omnius.” “I am merely doing my job.”

— Brian Herbert

40. “I intend to create a new work of art, all my own. A still life, of sorts. You three will be vital parts of the process. Rejoice in your good fortune.” In the sterile environment of the laboratory, with the cold assistance of his personal robot guards, Erasmus proceeded to vivisect the trio of victims, oblivious to their screams. “I want to get to the heart of the matter,” he quipped, “the lifeblood of it.”

— Brian Herbert

41. “Any school for free citizens must begin by teaching distrust, not trust. It must teach questioning, not acceptance of stock answers.”

— Brian Herbert

42. “As a human being, I was born on the brink of personal destruction, and I have spent my life dancing along the edge of that cliff.”

— Brian Herbert

43. “There is no reality – only our own order imposed on everything.”

— Brian Herbert

44. “I can envision calculations all the way to infinity,” she said, as if in a trance. “I don’t have to write them down.”

— Brian Herbert

45. “Seeker, who says religion is the way to God?”

— Brian Herbert

46. “Consciousness and logic are not reliable standards. – COGITORS, Fundamental Postulate.”

— Brian Herbert

47. “The more tightly packed the group, the greater the need for strict social ranks and orders.”

— Brian Herbert

48. “Arrakis is ours because we have taken it,” Selim announced. “We have learned to survive under the harshest circumstances, without depending upon the benevolence of strangers or trade with offworld intruders.”

— Brian Herbert

49. “Vor stared for a moment at his own reflection in the familiar mirrored face, remembering some of the stupid jokes his friend had told and the innovative military games they had played together. Seurat had never harmed him in any way.”

— Brian Herbert

50. “Humans are different in private than in the presence of others. While the private persona merges into the social persona in varying degrees, the union is never complete. Something is always held back.”

— Brian Herbert