Quotes about Control

She had quoted a Bene Gesserit proverb to him: "When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movement becomes headlong—faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thought of obstacles and forget that a precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it's too late." Paul

Command must always look confident, he thought. All that faith riding on your shoulders while you sit in the critical seat and never show it.

If you think you own something, that's like walking on quicksand.

The whole universe sat there, open to the man who could make the right decisions. The uncertain rabbits had to be exposed, made to run for their burrows. Else how could you control them and breed them?

The man without emotions is the one to fear. But deep emotions…ah, now, those can be bent to your needs.

Understand yourself, Piter. You want her because she was a Duke's woman, a symbol of his power—beautiful, useful, exquisitely trained for her role.

It's an old, old trick of autocratic rule. Good subjects must feel guilty. The guilt begins as a feeling of failure. The good autocrat provides many opportunities for failure in the populace.

But power deluded those who used it. One tended to believe power could overcome any barrier … including one's own ignorance.

Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it. Eventually, they lose touch with reality . . . and fall.

But it's well known that repression makes a religion flourish.

When I'm stronger than you I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.

Behind any use of power over another the ultimate assumption remains: 'I feed on your energy.