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Deceit is a tool of statecraft," Irulan agreed."There are limits to power, as those who put their hopes in a constitution always discover," Paul said.

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Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government?

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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 v...more

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Small souls who seek power over others first destroy the faith those others might have in themselves.

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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 mona...more

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We are plagued by a corrupt polity which promotes unlawful and/or immoral behaviour. Public interest has no practical significance in everyday behavio...more

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Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.

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Don't give over all of your critical faculties to people in power, no matter how admirable those people may appear to be. Beneath the hero's facade yo...more

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The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.

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Dune was a world of paradox now—a world under siege, yet the center of power. To come under siege, he decided, was the inevitable fate of power.

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All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities.

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Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect any who seek it.

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Democracy is susceptible to being led astray by having scapegoats paraded in front of the electorate. Get the rich, the greedy, the criminals, the stu...more

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All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the co...more

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When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong - faster and fa...more