Children of Dune, by Frank Herbert: 5 stars

#32 for 2011:

Children of Dune, by Frank Herbert. The quality, the caliber, keeps going strong.  Sure, it's weird as hell, but revealing, and compelling, and it stays with you.

"An army," she said, "is composed of disposable, completely replaceable parts.  That is the lesson of the Levenbrech."
"Replaceable parts," he said.  "including the supreme command?"
"Without the supreme command there is seldom a reason for an army..."  (p. 47)

"The universe as we see it is never quite the exact physical universe," she said.  (p. 75)

"A large populace held in check by a small but powerful force is quite a common situation in our universe.  And we know the major conditions wherein this large populace may turn upon its keepers-
"One:  When they find a leader.  This is the most volatile threat to the powerful; they must retain control of leaders.
"Two:  When the populace recognizes its chains.  Keep the populace blind and unquestioning.
"Three:  When the populace perceives a hope of escape from bondage.  They must never even believe that escape is possible!"  (p. 108)

This is the age of the shrug.  He knows I've heard all the stories about him and he doesn't care.  Our civilization could well die of indifference within it before succumbing to external attack.  (p. 149)

"All proofs inevitably lead to propositions which have no proof!  All things are known because we want to believe in them."  (p. 150)

The universe neither threatens nor promises...  [T]he realities of the universe... must be faced regardless of how you feel about them.  You cannot fend off such realities with words.  They will come at you in their own wordless way and then, then you will understand what is meant by "life and death".  (p. 179)

In all major socializing forces you will find an underlying movement to gain and maintain power through the use of words.  From witch doctor to priest to bureaucrat it is all the same.  A governed populace must be conditioned to accept power-words as actual things, to confuse the symbolized system with the tangible universe.  In the maintenance of such a power structure, certain symbols are kept out of the reach of common understanding- symbols such as those dealing with economic manipulation or those which define the local interpretation of sanity.  (p. 201)

He gave the impression of being self-contained, an organized and firmly integrated whole.  (p. 217)

I think this just spelled out my greatest wish...

The generalist looks outward; he looks for living principles, knowing full well that such principles change, that they develop.  It is to the characteristics of change itself that the mentat-generalist must look.  There can be no permanent catalogue of such change, no handbook or manual.  You must look at it with as few preconceptions as possible, asking yourself, "Now what is this thing doing?"  (p. 221)

"If you would possess your humanity, let go of the universe!"  (p. 223)

"Is your religion real when it costs you nothing and carries no risk?  Is your religion real when you fatten upon it?  Is your religion real when you commit atrocities in its name?  When comes your downward degeneration from the original revelation?"  (p. 225)

"Abandon certainty!  That's life's deepest command.  That's what life's all about."  (p. 226)

"To exist is to stand out, away from the background," The Preacher said, "You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgement of your existence."  (p. 227)

Daly would say, away from the Foreground; and I bet that The Preacher would reply, yes, away from the foreground and the background both- to be in your own space, in a life of your own creation, your own world, never again to be repeated in all of eternity and only existing now if you make it so!

"The future remains uncertain and so it should, for it is the canvas upon which we paint our desires.  Thus always the human condition faces a beautifully empty canvas.  We possess only this moment in which to dedicate ourselves continuously to the sacred presence we share and create."  (p. 305)

The patterns could guide and they could trap.  One had to remember that patterns change.  (p. 307)

[T]here exist no intransigent opposites except in the beliefs of men....  You know then that the universe is a coherent whole and you are indivisible from it.  (p. 377)

"It is my strength as a human  that I can make my own choices of what to believe and what not to believe, of what to be and what not to be."  (p. 384)