Scraps From a Geek Bible.

Some of my closest friends know that I've put a little effort into making a sort of "agnostic bible."

Which is to say, I collect quotes from any source that fit my undefined and scattershot approach to a worldview... And no source has been quite as rich as the universe of Dune. Which is funny and kind of sad, given the Dune-verse's take on religion in general and rote litany in particular... with that said, here are a few excerpts from my latest cullings...

Dune
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. 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."
- The Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear

"Bless the Maker and all His Water. Bless the coming and going of Him, May His passing cleanse the world. May He keep the world for his people."
- While I'm not even a Deist, as such, I've always found Shai-Hulud a more credible notion of a Deity than anyone who gave a damn about the fate of an individual human. And this quotation expresses an attitude toward the unknown that I can support.

"Let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms and the freedom to use them."
- From Duke Leto, rather than any of the weird ideologies in the novels, but a useful aphorism.

"Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place."
- Nothing sums up what the last few years have taught me quite so well.

Dune Messiah
"You do not take from this universe. It grants you what it will."

Children of Dune
"This is the fallacy of power: ultimately it is effective only in an absolute, a limited universe. But the basic lesson of our relativistic universe is that things change. Any power must always meet a greater power."

God-Emperor of Dune
"You should never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die."
- If ever my view on socializing were summed up.

Chapterhouse: Dune
"Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of history have based their job security."

"Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you a cover up. Real boats rock."

A Game of Thrones"The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends. It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace. They never are."

The Fellowship of the Ring
"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends."

"The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out."

"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."

The Return of the King"If we all got angry together something might be done."