My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. 'Something cannot emerge from nothing,' he said. This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable 'the truth' can be.
Frank HerbertRead
Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Empires start with a clear purpose but often lose their direction over time, becoming consumed by routine.
This quote by Frank Herbert suggests that the initial formation of empires is driven by strong, clear objectives. However, as time passes and empires become established, they often fall into a state of complacency where their original aims are overshadowed by ritualistic practices, leading to a loss of meaningful direction and purpose.
Themes
EmpirePurposeDirectionRitualAims
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is perfect for a history lecture discussing the rise and fall of empires.
More from Frank Herbert
All quotes βIf you need something to worship, then worship life - all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!
Frank HerbertRead
Religion must remain an outlet for people who say to themselves, "I am not the kind of person I want to be." It must never sink into an assemblage of the self-satisfied.
Frank HerbertRead
To know a thing well, know it's limits; Only when pushed beyond it's tolerance will it's true nature be seen. -The Amtal Rule
Frank HerbertRead
Technology tends toward avoidance of risks by investors. Uncertainty is ruled out if possible. People generally prefer the predictable. Few recognize how destructive this can be, how it imposes severe limits on variability and thus makes whole populations fatally vulnerable to the shocking ways our universe can throw the dice.
Frank HerbertRead
It is impossible to live in the past, difficult to live in the present and a waste to live in the future.
Frank HerbertRead
Similar quotes
Life is like a wheel. Sooner or later, it always come around to where you started again.
Stephen KingRead
It is impossible - now, at this point in the long journey of human culture - to avoid the sense that pain is necessity; that it is neither accident, nor malformation, nor malice, nor misunderstanding, that it is integral to the human character both in its inflicting and in its suffering, this terrible sense Tragedy alone has articulated, and will continue to articulate, and in so doing, make beautiful...
Howard BarkerRead
You see, the outcome of the battle is unimportant. What matters is the chaos, and the slaughter.
Neil GaimanRead
What is all Knowledge too but recorded Experience, and a product of History; of which, therefore, Reasoning and Belief, no less than Action and Passion, are essential materials?
Thomas CarlyleRead
Ironically, the very fact that democracy has such a lengthy history has actually contributed to confusion and disagreement, for 'democracy' has meant different things to different people at different times and places.
Robert A. DahlRead
It is the essence of the institutions of liberty that it be recognized that guilt is personal and cannot be attributed to the holding of opinions or to mere intent in the absence of overt acts.
Charles Evans HughesRead