diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'fortune-mod/.local/share/fortune/heretics-of-dune')
| -rw-r--r-- | fortune-mod/.local/share/fortune/heretics-of-dune | 358 |
1 files changed, 358 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/fortune-mod/.local/share/fortune/heretics-of-dune b/fortune-mod/.local/share/fortune/heretics-of-dune new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f75bcff --- /dev/null +++ b/fortune-mod/.local/share/fortune/heretics-of-dune @@ -0,0 +1,358 @@ +Most discipline is hidden discipline, designed not to liberate but to limit. +Do not ask Why? Be cautious with How? Why? leads inexorably to paradox. +How? traps you in a universe of cause and effect. Both deny the infinite. + + -- The Apocrypha of Arrakis +% +Explosions are also compressions of time. Observable changes in the natural +universe all are explosive to some degree and from some point of view; +otherwise you would not notice them. Smooth Continuity of change, if slowed +sufficiently, goes without notice by observers whose time/attention span is +too short. Thus, I tell you, I have seen changes you would never have +marked. + + -- Leto II +% +The existence of no-ships raises the possibility of destroying entire +planets without retaliation. A large object, asteroid or equivalent, may be +sent against the planet. Or the people can be set against each other by +sexual subversion, and then can be armed to destroy themselves. These +Honored Matres appear to favor this latter technique. + + -- Bene Gesserit Analysis +% +Humans live best when each has his place to stand, when each knows where he be +longs in the scheme of things and what he may achieve. Destroy the place and +you destroy the person. + + -- Bene Gesserit Teaching +% +Has not religion claimed a patent on creation for all of these millennia? + + -- The Tleilaxu Question, from Muad'dib Speaks +% +Some days it's melange; some days it's bitter dirt. + + -- Rakian Aphorism +% +The trouble with some kinds of warfare (and be certain the Tyrant knew this, +because it is implicit in his lesson) is that they destroy all moral decency +in susceptible types. Warfare of these kinds will dump the destroyed +survivors back into an innocent population that is incapable of even +imagining what such returned soldiers might do. + + -- Teachings of the Golden Path, Bene Gesserit Archives +% +Ten thousand years since Leto II began his metamorphosis from human into the +sandworm of Rakis and historians still argue over his motives. Was he +driven by the desire for long life? He lived more than ten times the normal +span of three hundred SY, but consider the price he paid. Was it the lure +of power? He is called the Tyrant for good reason but what did power bring +him that a human might want? Was he driven to save humankind from itself? +We have only his own words about his Golden Path to answer this and I cannot +accept the self-serving records of Dar-es-Balat. Might there have been +other gratifications, which only his experiences would illuminate? Without +better evidence the question is moot. We are reduced to saying only that +"He did it!" The physical fact alone is undeniable. + + -- The Metamorphosis of Leto II, 10,000th Anniversary Peroration by Gaus Andaud +% +Technology, in common with many other activities, tends toward avoidance of +risks by investors. Uncertainty is ruled out if possible. Capital +investment follows this rule, since 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. + + -- Assessment of Ix, Bene Gesserit Archives +% +In my estimation, more misery has been created by reformers than by any +other force in human history. Show me someone who says "Something must be +done!" and I will show you a head full of vicious intentions that have no +other outlet. What we must strive for always! is to find the natural flow +and go with it. + + -- The Reverend Mother Taraza, Conversational Record, BG File GSXXMAT9 +% +The Tleilaxu secret must be in their sperm. Our tests prove that their +sperm does not carry forward in a straight genetic fashion. Gaps occur. +Every Tleilaxu we have examined has hidden his inner self from us. They are +naturally immune to an Ixian Probe! Secrecy at the deepest levels, that is +their ultimate armor and their ultimate weapon. + + -- Bene Gesserit Analysis, Archives Code: BTXX441WOR +% +The outer surface of a balloon is always larger than the center of the +damned thing! That's the whole point of the Scattering! + + -- Bene Gesserit response to an Ixian suggestion that new + investigative probes be sent out among the Lost Ones +% +The failure of CHOAM? Quite simple: They ignore the fact that larger +commercial powers wait at the edges of their activities, powers that could +swallow them the way a slig swallows garbage. This is the true threat of +the Scattering -- to them and to us all. + + -- Bene Gesserit Council notes, Archives #SXX90CH +% +At the quantum level our universe can be seen as an indeterminate place, +predictable in a statistical way only when you employ large enough numbers. +Between that universe and a relatively predictable one where the passage of +a single planet can be timed to a picosecond, other forces come into play. +For the in-between universe where we find our daily lives, that which you +believe is a dominant force. Your beliefs order the unfolding of daily +events. If enough of us believe, a new thing can be made to exist. Belief +structure creates a filter through which chaos is sifted into order. + + -- Analysis of the Tyrant, the Taraza File: BG Archives +% +Life cannot find reasons to sustain it, cannot be a source of decent mutual +regard, unless each of us resolves to breathe such qualities into it. + + -- Chenoeh: "Conversations with Leto II" +% +Law always chooses sides on the basis of enforcement power. Morality and +legal niceties have little to do with it when the real question is: Who has +the clout? + + -- Bene Gesserit Council Proceedings: Archives #XOX232 +% +The basic rule is this: Never support weakness; always support strength. + + -- The Bene Gesserit Coda +% +Nothing surpasses the complexity of the human mind. + + -- Leto II: Dar-es-Balat Records +% +The significant fact is this: No Bene Tleilax female has ever been seen +away from the protection of their core planets. (Face Dancer mules who +simulate females do not count in this analysis. They cannot be breeders.) +The Tleilaxu sequester their females to keep them from our hands. This is +our primary deduction. It must also be in the eggs that the Tleilaxu +Masters conceal their most essential secrets. + + -- Bene Gesserit Analysis -- Archives #XOXTM99 ..... 041 +% +What social inheritances went outward with the Scattering? We know those +times intimately. We know both the mental and physical settings. The Lost +Ones took with them a consciousness confined mostly to manpower and +hardware. There was a desperate need for room to expand driven by the myth +of Freedom. Most had not learned the deeper lesson of the Tyrant, that +violence builds its own limits. The Scattering was wild and random movement +interpreted as growth (expansion). It was goaded by a profound fear (often +unconscious) of stagnation and death. + + -- The Scattering: Bene Gesserit Analysis (Archives) +% +Liberty and Freedom are complex concepts. They go back to religious ideas +of Free Will and are related to the Ruler Mystique implicit in absolute +monarchs. Without absolute monarchs patterned after the Old Gods and ruling +by the grace of a belief in religious indulgence, Liberty and Freedom would +never have gained their present meaning. These ideals owe their very +existence to past examples of oppression. And the forces that maintain such +ideas will erode unless renewed by dramatic teaching or new oppressions. +This is the most basic key to my life. + + -- Leto II, God Emperor of Dune: Dar-es-Balat Records +% +Quite naturally, holders of power wish to suppress wild research. +Unrestricted questing after knowledge has a long history of producing +unwanted competition. The powerful want a "safe line of investigations," +which will develop only those products and ideas that can be controlled and, +most important, that will allow the larger part of the benefits to be +captured by inside investors. Unfortunately, a random universe full of +relative variables does not insure such a "safe line of investigations." + + -- Assessment of Ix, Bene Gesserit Archives +% +Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more +than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the +old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look +inept. Who enjoys appearing inept? + + -- A Guide to Trial and Error in Government, Bene Gesserit Archives +% +The long table on the right is set for a banquet of roast desert hare in +sauce cepeda. The other dishes, clockwise to the right from the far end of +the table, are aplomage sirian, chukka under glass, coffee with melange +(note the hawk crest of the Atreides on the urn), pot-a-oie and, in the +Balut crystal bottle, sparkling Caladan wine. Note the ancient poison +detector concealed in the chandelier. + + -- Dar-es-Balat, Description at a Museum Display +% +People always want something more than immediate joy or that deeper sense +called happiness. This is one of the secrets by which we shape the +fulfillment of our designs. The something more assumes amplified power with +people who cannot give it a name or who (most often the case) do not even +suspect its existence. Most people only react unconsciously to such hidden +forces. Thus, we have only to call a calculated something more into +existence, define it and give it shape, then people will follow. + + -- Leadership Secrets of the Bene Gesserit +% +There was this drylander who was asked which was more important, a literjon +of water or a vast pool of water? The drylander thought a moment and then +said: "The literjon is more important. No single person could own a great +pool of water. But a literjon you could hide under your cloak and run away +with it. No one would know." + + -- The Jokes of Ancient Dune, Bene Gesserit Archives +% +By your belief in singularities, in granular absolutes, you deny movement, +even the movement of evolution! While you cause a granular universe to +persist in your awareness, you are blind to movement. When things change, +your absolute universe vanishes, no longer accessible to your self-limiting +perceptions. The universe has moved beyond you. + + -- First Draft, Atreides Manifesto, Bene Gesserit Archives +% +We have long known that the objects of our palpable sense experiences can be +influenced by choice -- both conscious choice and unconscious. This is a +demonstrated fact that does not require that we believe some force within us +reaches out and touches the universe. I address a pragmatic relationship +between belief and what we identify as "real." All of our judgments carry a +heavy burden of ancestral beliefs to which we of the Bene Gesserit tend to +be more susceptible than most. It is not enough that we are aware of this +and guard against it. Alternative interpretations must always receive our +attention. + + -- Mother Superior Taraza: Argument in Council +% +This is the awe-inspiring universe of magic: There are no atoms, only waves +and motions all around. Here, you discard all belief in barriers to +understanding. You put aside understanding itself. This universe cannot be +seen, cannot be heard, cannot be detected in any way by fixed perceptions. +It is the ultimate void where no preordained screens occur upon which forms +may be projected. You have only one awareness here -- the screen of the +magi: Imagination! Here, you learn what it is to be human. You are a +creator of order, of beautiful shapes and systems, an organizer of chaos. + + -- The Atreides Manifesto, Bene Gesserit Archives +% +This room reconstructs a bit of the desert of Dune. The sandcrawler +directly in front of you dates from the Atreides times. Grouped around it, +moving clockwise from your left, are a small harvester, a carryall, a +primitive spice factory and the other support equipment. All are explained +at each station. Note the illuminated quotation above the display: "FOR +THEY SHALL SUCK OF THE ABUNDANCE OF THE SEAS AND OF THE TREASURE IN THE +SAND." This ancient religious quotation was oft repeated by the famous +Gurney Halleck. + + -- Guide Announcement, Museum of Dar-es-Balat +% + Our fathers ate manna in the desert, + In the burning place where whirlwinds came. + Lord, save us from that horrible land! + Save us, oh-h-h-h-h save us + From that dry and thirsty land. + + -- Songs of Gurney Halleck, Museum of Dar-es-Balat +% +All organized religions face a common problem, a tender spot through which we +may enter and shift them to our designs: How do they distinguish hubris from +revelation? + + -- Missionaria Protectiva, the Inner Teachings +% + I remember friends from wars all but we forgot. + All of them distilled into each wound we caught. + Those wounds are all the painful places where we fought. + Battles better left behind, ones we never sought. + What is it that we spent and what was it we bought? + + -- Songs of the Scattering +% +It is your fate, forgetfulness. All of the old lessons of life, you lose and +gain and lose and gain again. + + -- Leto II, the Voice of Dar-es-Balat +% +Survival of self, of species, and of environment, these are what drive +humans. You can observe how the order of importance changes in a lifetime. +What are the things of immediate concern at a given age? Weather? The +state of the digestion? Does she (or he) really care? All of those various +hungers that flesh can sense and hope to satisfy. What else could possibly +matter? + + -- Leto II to Hwi Noree, His Voice: Dar-es-Balat +% +There was a man who sat each day looking out through a narrow vertical +opening where a single board had been removed from a tall wooden fence. +Each day a wild ass of the desert passed outside the fence and across the +narrow opening -- first the nose, then the head, the forelegs, the long +brown back, the hindlegs, and lastly the tail. One day, the man leaped to +his feet with the light of discovery in his eyes and he shouted for all who +could hear him: "It is obvious! The nose causes the tail!" + + -- Stories of the Hidden Wisdom, from the Oral History of Rakis +% +Historians exercise great power and some of them know it. They recreate the +past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the +future as well. + + -- Leto II, His Voice, from Dar-es-Balat +% +"I must rule with eye and claw -- as the hawk among lesser birds." + + -- Atreides assertion (Ref: BG Archives) +% +Memory never recaptures reality. Memory reconstructs. All reconstructions +change the original, becoming external frames of reference that inevitably +fall short. + + -- Mentat Handbook +% +Concealed behind strong barriers the heart becomes ice. + + -- Darwi Odrade, Argument in Council +% +When strangers meet, great allowance should be made for differences of custom +and training. + + -- The Lady Jessica, from "Wisdom of Arrakis" +% +May you die on Caladan! + + -- Ancient Drinking Toast +% +The worst potential competition for any organism can come from its own kind. +The species consumes necessities. Growth is limited by that necessity which +is present in the least amount. The least favorable condition controls the +rate of growth. (Law of the Minimum) + + -- From "Lessons of Arrakis" +% +O you who know what we suffer here, do not forget us in your prayers. + + -- Sign over Arrakeen Landing Field (Historical Records: Dar-es-Balat) +% + The world is for the living. Who are they? + We dared the dark to reach the white and warm. + She was the wind when the wind was in my way. + Alive at noon, I perished in her form. + Who rise from the flesh to spirit know the fall: + The word outleaps the world and light is all. + + -- Theodore Roethke (Historical Quotations: Dar-es-Balat) +% +Justice? Who asks for justice. We make our own justice. We make it here on +Arrakis -- win or die. Let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms +and the freedom to use them. + + -- Leto I: Bene Gesserit Archives +% +We are not looking at a new state of matter but at a newly recognized +relationship between consciousness and matter, which provides a more +penetrating insight into the workings of prescience. The oracle shapes a +projected inner universe to produce new external probabilities out of forces +that are not understood. There is no need to understand these forces before +using them to shape the physical universe. Ancient metal workers had no +need to understand the molecular and submolecular complexities of their +steel, bronze, copper, gold, and tin. They invented mystical powers to +describe the unknown while they continued to operate their forges and wield +their hammers. + + -- Mother Superior Taraza, Argument in Council +% |