Paul sensed his own tensions, decided to practice one of the mind-body lessons his mother had taught him. Three quick breaths triggered the responses: he fell into the floating awareness…focusing the consciousness…aortal dilation…avoiding the unfocused mechanism of consciousness…to be conscious by choice…blood enriched and swift-flooding the overload regions…one does not obtain food-safety-freedom by instinct alone…animal consciousness does not extend beyond the given moment nor into the idea that its victims may become extinct…the animal destroys and does not produce…animal pleasures remain close to sensation levels and avoid the perceptual…the human requires a background grid through which to see his universe…focused consciousness by choice, this forms your grid…bodily integrity follows nerve-blood flow according to the deepest awareness of cell needs…all things/cells/beings are impermanent…strive for flow-permanence within….

"Ever sift sand through a screen?" she asked. The tangential slash of her question shocked his mind into a higher awareness: Sand through a screen. He nodded. "We Bene Gesserit sift people to find the humans." He lifted his right hand, willing the memory of the pain. "And that’s all there is to it—pain?" "I observed you in pain, lad. Pain’s merely the axis of the test. Your mother’s told you about our ways of observing. I see the signs of her teaching in you. Our test is crisis and observation."

"When you live upon Arrakis," she had said, "khala, the land is empty. The moons will be your friends, the sun your enemy." Paul had sensed his mother come up beside him away from her post guarding the door. She had looked at the Reverend Mother and asked: "Do you see no hope, Your Reverence?" "Not for the father." And the old woman had waved Jessica to silence, looked down at Paul. "Grave this on your memory, lad: A world is supported by four things…." She held up four big-knuckled fingers. "…the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valor of the brave. But all of these are as nothing…." She closed her fingers into a fist. "…without a ruler who knows the art of ruling. Make that the science of your tradition!"

Many have remarked the speed with which Muad’Dib learned the necessities of Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit, of course, know the basis of this speed. For the others, we can say that Muad’Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad’Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson.

Gurney Halleck strode along at the point of the crowd, bag over one shoulder, the neck of his nine-string baliset clutched in the other hand. They were long-fingered hands with big thumbs, full of tiny movements that drew such delicate music from the baliset. The Duke watched Halleck, admiring the ugly lump of a man, noting the glass-splinter eyes with their gleam of savage understanding. Here was a man who lived outside the faufreluches while obeying their every precept. What was it Paul had called him? "Gurney, the valorous."

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.

The door opposite the Duke banged open. Thufir Hawat strode through it looking older and more leathery than ever. He paced down the length of the table, stopped at attention facing Leto. "My Lord," he said, speaking to a point over Leto’s head, "I have just learned how I failed you. It becomes necessary that I tender my resig—" "Oh, sit down and stop acting the fool," the Duke said. He waved to the chair across from Paul. "If you made a mistake, it was in overestimating the Harkonnens. Their simple minds came up with a simple trick. We didn’t count on simple tricks. And my son has been at great pains to point out to me that he came through this largely because of your training. You didn’t fail there!" He tapped the back of the empty chair. "Sit down, I say!" Hawat sank into the chair. "But—" "I’ll hear no more of it," the Duke said. "The incident is past. We have more pressing business. Where are the others?" "I asked them to wait outside while I—" "Call them in." Hawat looked into Leto’s eyes. "Sire, I—" "I know who my true friends are, Thufir," the Duke said. "Call in the men." Hawat swallowed. "At once, my Lord." He swiveled in the chair, called to the open door: "Gurney, bring them in."

There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man—with human flesh. —FROM "COLLECTED SAYINGS OF MUAD’DIB" BY THE PRINCESS IRULAN

Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man. —FROM "COLLECTED SAYINGS OF MUAD’DIB" BY THE PRINCESS IRULAN

What do you despise? By this are you truly known. —FROM "MANUAL OF MUAD’DIB" BY THE PRINCESS IRULAN

We came from Caladan—a paradise world for our form of life. There existed no need on Caladan to build a physical paradise or a paradise of the mind—we could see the actuality all around us. And the price we paid was the price men have always paid for achieving a paradise in this life—we went soft, we lost our edge. —FROM "MUAD’DIB: CONVERSATIONS" BY THE PRINCESS IRULAN

"Give as few orders as possible," his father had told him…once…long ago. "Once you’ve given orders on a subject, you must always give orders on that subject."