Plots within plots within plots!!
DUNE books presents us with complex politics between characters as well as between factions and houses. There are secret plans and hidden motivations that leads to tragedy and victory. Consciousness within and philosophy leads to complex maneuvering and calculations on gathering loyalty and ruling empires.
Thus, the book is full of conversations, thoughts and quoted that is full of cruelty and wisdom that makes for an interesting read in itself………on one’s own opinion at least.
…is to attempt seeing truth without knowing falsehood. It is the attempt to see the light without knowing darkness.
‘They have to think they have succeeded” the Duke said. “They must think me this much of a fool. It must look real…..”
“Nothing wins more loyalty for a leader than an air of bravura” the Duke said. “I, therefore, cultivate an air of bravura”
The people must learn how well I govern them. How will they know if we didn’t tell them.
But the young body carried a sense of command, a poised assurance, as though he saw and knew things all around him that were not visible to others.
Paul sensed the power in Kynes, the impact of personality, as though he were blood royal, born
command.
You never talk of likelihoods on Arrakis. You speak only of possibilities.
Paul sat back. He had used the questions and hyperawareness to do what his mother called registering’ the person. He had Kynes now tune of voice, each detail of face and gesture.
His truth-sense, awareness of tone shadings, told him that Kynes was lying and telling half-truths.
He sensed half-truths, outright lies.
Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent.
Under pretext of guarding her, you will keep the Lady Jessica under constant surveillance.
Humans live best when each has his own place, when each knows where he belongs in the scheme of things. Destroy the place and destroy the person.
Her command had been regal, peremptory — uttered in a tone and manner he had found completely irresistible. His body had obeyed her before he could think about it
Slowly, she marshaled the inner calmness.
I must remain calm, alert, and prepared. I may get only one chance. Again, she forced the inner calmness. The ungainly thumping of her heartbeats evened, shaping out time.
They’ll be killed as soon as they report success on their mission. The Baron wants no witnesses.
someone’s following us! she thought. Who! Then: The ones be Barom set to watch this pair. And there’ll be watchers for the watchers, too.
Jessica felt the words rolling in the air. The tone, the timbre excellent — imperative, very sharp. A slightly lower pitch would have been better, but it could still fall within this man’s spectrum.
‘Gentlemen! No need to fight over me.” At the same time, she writhed sinuously for Kinet’s benefit. She saw them grow tense, knowing that in this instant they were convinced of the need to fight over her.
‘Is any woman worth fighting over?’ she asked. By uttering the words, by being there, she made herself infinitely worth their fighting.
Soon I must remove him, the Baron thought. He has almost outlasted his usefulness, almost reached the point of positive danger to my person. First, though, he must make the people of Arrakis hate him. Then — they will welcome my darling Feyd-Rautha as a savior.
Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear’s path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
The absence of a thing, the Baron said, “this can be as deadly as the presence.
Hawat by my side! the Baron thought. The Sardankar will give him to me. If they suspect anything at all it’s that I wish to destroy the Mentat. And this suspicion I’ll confirm! The fools! One of the most formidable Mentats in all history, a Mentat trained to kill, and they’ll toss him to me like some silly toy to be broken. I will show them what use can be made of such a toy.
‘A carnivore never stops. Show no mercy. Never stop. Mercy is a chimera. It can be defeated by the stomach rumbling its hunger, by the throat crying its thirst. You must be always hungry and thirsty.’ The Baron caressed his bulges beneath the suspensors. ‘Like me.’
The body does things of itself sometimes, Paul, and I can teach you about this. You must learn to control every muscle, every fibre of your body.
“One does not risk everything to settle a score prematurely”, Tuek said.
“Move slowly and the day of your revenge will come”, Tuck said.
the smuggler reminded him of Duke Leto: a leader of men, courageous, secure in his own position and his own course.
A time of upset is a rare opportunity for our business.’
Subtlety and self-control were, after all, the most deadly threats to us all.
How the mind gears itself for its environment, she thought. And she recalled a Bene Gesserit axiom: ‘The mind can go either direction under stress — toward positive or toward negative: on or off. Think of it as a spectrum whose extremes are unconsciousness at the negative end and hyperconsciousness at the positive end. The way the mind will lean under stress is strongly influenced by training.
No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero, his father said.
Then, as his planet killed him, it occurred to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error.
Reply was urgent, but she had not heard enough of this man to be certain she had a register on his culture and weaknesses.
I have his voice and pattern registered now, Jessica thought. I could control him with a word, but he’s a strong man.. worth much more to us unblunted and with full freedom of action. We shall see.
It was the obvious thing for a weak outworlder to do, and the obvious slows an opponent’s reactions. It takes an instant to interpret
If only he knew the tricks we use! She must’ve been good, that Bene Gesserit of the Missionaria Protectiva. These Fremen are beautifully prepared to believe in us.
Beginnings are such delicate times.
The Fremen were supreme in that quality the ancients called ‘spannungsbogen’ — which is the self-imposed delay between desire for a thing and the act of reaching out to grasp that thing.
A man who weighs his decisions, who thinks of consequences, she thought.
He has stature, she thought. Where did he learn such inner balance?
Keep the mind on the knife and not on the hand that holds it, ‘ Gurney Halleck had told him time and again. ‘The knife is more dangerous than the hand and the knife can be in either hand.’
Survival is the ability to swim in strange water.”
The meeting between ignorance and knowledge, between brutality and culture — it begins in the dignity with which we treat our dead.
This was a dream for which men would die willingly. It was another of the essential ingredients that she felt her son needed: people with a goal. Such people would be easy to imbue with fervour and fanaticism. They could be wielded like a sword to win back Paul’s place for him.
Mark him well, Feyd! A killer with the manners of a rabbit — this is the most dangerous kind.
“The Emperor cannot believe I threaten him!’ The Baron permitted anger and grief to edge his voice, thinking: Let him wrong me in that! I could place myself on the throne while still beating my breast over how I’d been wronged.
‘It’s easier to be terrified by an enemy you admire.’
That which makes a man superhuman is terrifying.
Things persisted in not being what they seemed.
He knows, else he wouldn’t ask.
‘If you had finesse and subtlety to match such courage, you’d be truest formidable.
Feyd-Rautha stared at him. A bargain! He means to keep me as his heir for certain, then. Else why bargain. One bargains with equals or near equals!
Well, let the lad believe I saw the plot on my own. In a way, I did. I was the one who saved Hawat from the wreckage of Arrakis. And this lad needs greater respect for my prowess.
Perhaps it was foolish to try hurrying the process.
Hawat! He plays both ends against the middle… is that it?
Hawat has deep emotions, Feyd. The man without emotions is the one to fear. But deep emotions. ah, now, those can be bent to your needs.
Yet, it is possible to see peril in the finding of ultimate perfection. It is clear that the ultimate pattern contains its own fixity. In such perfection, all things move toward death.
‘When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movement becomes headlong — faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget that a precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it’s too late
‘The unknown brings its own worries,
Everything around him moved smoothly in the ancient routine that required no orders.
“Give as few orders as possible, his father had told him once… long ago. ‘Once you’ve given orders on a subject, you must always give orders on that subject.’
Do it simply and directly nothing fancy. Among our people, we ride the maker at the age of twelve. You are more than six years beyond that age and not born to this life. You don’t have to impress anyone with your courage. We know you are brave All you must do is call the maker and ride him.
“Control the coinage and the courts — let the rabble have the rest. Thus the Padishah Emperor advises you. And he tells you: If you want profits, you must rule.’ There is truth in these words, but I ask myself: ‘Who are the rabble and who are the ruled?’
Their minds rejected what they could not understand or encompass.
He’s capable, but accident can strike down the most capable.
You can wait just so long. Then the dreariness of the waiting overcomes you.
We know the need for cautious waiting, Jessica thought, but there’s the core of our frustration. We know also the harm that waiting extended too long can do to us. We lose our sense of purpose if the waiting’s prolonged.
You cannot avoid the interplay of politics within an orthodox religion. This power struggle permeates the training, educating and disciplining of the orthodox community. Because of this pressure, the leaders of such a community inevitably must face that ultimate internal question: to succumb to complete opportunism as the price of maintaining their rule, or risk sacrificing themselves for the sake of the orthodox ethic.
You’ve ridden the little ones bred for the seed and the Water of Life; Stilgar had said. But what you’ll summon for your test is the wild maker, an old man of the desert. You must have proper respect for such a one.
a leathery look to the skin, a squint to the eyes and calculation in the glance that seemed to weigh everything in sight.
Gurney Halleck who’d known Paul even in the times before Arrakis, a man who shared a camaraderie that Stilgar could never invade.
How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him.
All men beneath your position covet your station;
Everything focuses here where the spice is. where they’ve dared not interfere before.. because to interfere was to lose what they must have. But now they’re desperate. All paths lead into darkness.
Yes, let them occupy their minds with small talk before we test ourselves against that force on the plain.
Worry saps the strength,’
But the test of a man isn’t what you think he’ll do. It’s what he actually does.
He stood waiting while his throne was brought, ignoring the Baron, seemingly ignoring every person in the room.
They’d never known anything but victory which, Paul realized, could be a weakness in itself.
they’d chosen always the clear, safe course that leads ever downward into stagnation.
The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it.
He’s overconfident, Paul thought. There’s a natural advantage I can accept.
He’s a talker, Paul thought. There’s another weakness. He grows uneasy in the face of silence.
Use the first moments in study. You may miss an opportunity for quick victory this way, but the moments of study are insurance of success. Take your time and be sure.’
Paul resumed his probing circle, allowing himself a cold smile at the tone of unease in Feyd Rautha’s voice, evidence that the pressure of silence was building.
his mind flooded with realization that the earlier hesitation had been a trick — an over-feint. Here was more of an opponent than he had expected. There would be tricks within tricks Within tricks.
