“They were such seriously futile people that she found herself wanting to cry out against their ready-made justifications for pointless lives.”

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

“The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.”

“There was a man so wise,He jumped intoA sandy placeAnd burnt out both his eyes!And when he knew his eyes were gone,He offered no complaint.He summoned up a visionAnd made himself a saint. -Children's Verse from History of Muad'dib”

“I didn't want to be different.I wanted to be able to laughBut I'm sister to an Emperor who's worshiped as a god. People fear me. I never wanted to be feared.I don't want to be part of history, I just want to be loved . . . and to love.”

“The difference between a good administrator and a bad one is about five heartbeats. Good administrators make immediate choices. […] They usually can be made to work. A bad administrator, on the other hand, hesitates, diddles around, asks for committees, for research and reports. Eventually, he acts in ways which create serious problems. […] “A bad administrator is more concerned with reports than with decisions. He wants the hard record which he can display as an excuse for his errors. […] Oh, they depend on verbal orders. They never lie about what they’ve done if their verbal orders cause problems, and they surround themselves with people able to act wisely on the basis of verbal orders. Often, the most important piece of information is that something has gone wrong. Bad administrators hide their mistakes until it’s too late to make corrections.”

“My family sat in their pool courtyard," Harah said, "in air bathed by the moisture that arose from the spray of a fountain. There was a tree of portyguls, round and deep in color, near at hand. There was a basket with mish mish and baklawa and mugs of liban—all manner of good things to eat. In our gardens and, in our flocks, there was peace . . . peace in all the land." "Life was full with happiness until the raiders came," Alia said. "Blood ran cold at the scream of friends," Jessica said. And she felt the memories rushing through her out of all those other pasts she shared. "La, la, la, the women cried," said Harah.”