"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total oblideration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
--Bene Gesserit Litany against fear, Dune
"Our cause is a secret within a secret;
a secret that only another
secret can explain;
it is a secret about a secret that is veiled by a
secret."
--Ja'far as-Sadiq, 6th Imam, Foucault's Pendulum
"Study nothing except in the knowledge that you already knew it.
Worship nothing except in adoration of your true self.
Fear nothing except in the certainty that you are your enemies begetter
and his only hope of redemption."
--Imajica
"Yes, it was a matter of opening doors, he thought. You opened one door and that led you to a place where there were other doors. You chose a door in this new place and examined what that revealed to you. There might be times when you were forced to try all of the doors but the more doors you opened, the more certain you became of which door to open next. Finally, a door would open into a place you recognized. Then you could say: 'Ahhhh, this explains everything.'"
--Duncan Idaho,Heretics of Dune
"The critical social problem of the mystic everywhere is to abide in God,
either as a manifestation of God or as God's devotee, and at the same
time to abide in phenomenality, as a material, social phenomenon. For the
dualist this remains difficult: God and World, for him, are apart. For the
non-dualist, however, the difficulty exists only at a preliminary stage of
the mystic way, antecedent to realization, since for him, finally, all is
found to be in some manner God -- as in the words of the Gnostic Thomas
Gospel, previously cited, attributed to Jesus: 'I am the All, the All came
forth from Me and the All attained to Me. Cleave the wood and I am there;
lift up the stone, you will find me there.'"
--Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology
"Religion (emulation of adults by the child) encysts past mythologies:
guesses, hidden assumptions of trust in the universe, pronouncements
make in search of personal power, all mingled with shreds of
enlightenment. And always an unspoken commandment: Thou shalt not
question! We break that commandment daily in the harnessing of human
imagination to our deepest creativity."
--Bene Gesserit credo, Chapterhouse: Dune
"Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and
find your liberty."
--The Coda, Chapterhouse: Dune
"Gnostic sources ... acknowledge the need for guidance, but only as a
provisional measure. The purpose of accepting authority is to learn to
outgrow it. When one becomes mature, one no longer needs any external
authority. The one who formerly took the place of a disciple comes to
recognize himself as Jesus' 'twin brother'."
--Elain Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels
"The Persian arrows are so numerous that they fill the sky and block out
the sun?
That is good, we shall get to fight in the shade."
--alleged quote from one of the 300 Spartans who
fought and died at the battle of Thermopylae
"Barefooted and naked of breast, I mingle with the people of the
world.
My clothes are ragged and dust-laden, and I am ever blissful.
I use no magic to extend my life;
Now, before me, the dead trees become
alive.
--from "10 Bulls", Zen Flesh, Zen Bones
Oh, lonely death on lonely life! Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in my topmost grief. Ho, ho! from all your furthest bounds, pour ye now in, ye bold billows of my whole foregone life, and top this one piled comber of my death! Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I split my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!
--Captain Ahab, Moby Dick