Butlerian Jihad Quotes

Aristotle raped reason. He implanted in the dominant schools of philosophy the attractive belief that there can be discrete separation between mind and body. This led quite naturally to corollary delusions such as the one that power can be understood without applying it, or that joy is totally removable from unhappiness, that peace can exist in the total absence of war, or that life can be understood without death. —ERASMUS, Corrin Notes

Any true student must realize that History has no beginning. Regardless of where a story starts, there are always earlier heroes and earlier tragedies.

With few ambitions, most people allowed efficient machines to perform everyday tasks for them. Gradually, humans ceased to think, or dream... or truly live.

A winner has more skills than a loser," Vor said, "no matter how you define the competition.

Then came the Butlerian Jihad—two generations of chaos. The god of machine-logic was overthrown among the masses and a new concept was raised: “Man may not be replaced.” Those

Each of us influences the actions of the people we know. —XAVIER HARKONNEN,

But the Butlerians turn fear into violence and panic into a weapon. By creating imaginary problems and raising the specter of nonexistent enemies, they transform common people into a wild herd that destroys everything they do not understand.

Music should make the spirit soar, take the breath away, touch the soul. Your work was just…pleasant tones, adequately performed.

Your outrageous and reckless chaos is the only reason you are able to beat me in any strategy game,” Seurat said. “It certainly has nothing to do with your innate skills.

Only those with narrow minds fail to see that the definition of Impossible is ‘Lack of imagination and incentive.’ —SERENA BUTLER

The tapestry of the universe is vast and complex, with infinite patterns. While threads of tragedy may form the primary weave, humanity with its undaunted optimism still manages to embroider small designs of happiness and love.

Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a man’s mind,’” Paul quoted. “Right out of the Butlerian Jihad and the Orange Catholic Bible,” she said. “But what the O.C. Bible should’ve said is: ‘Thou shalt not make a machine to counterfeit a human mind.’ Have you studied the Mentat in your service?

There is a certain hubris to science, a belief that the more we develop technology and the more we learn, the better our lives will be.

Most histories are written by the winners of conflicts, but those written by the losers—if they survive—are often more interesting.

Some lives are taken, while others are freely given. —ZUFA CENVA, repeated eulogy speech phrase

Human life is not negotiable. —SERENA BUTLER

The narrow mind erects stubborn barriers," her mother had once told her. "But against those barriers, words are formidable weapons.

Erasmus was like Serena in a sense: he frequently needed to prune and weed the human race in his own garden.

If we give up our humanity to fight the machines, Zufa, then Omnius has already won!

The robot responded with surprising sarcasm. “I am aware of the various bodily orifices humans possess. Therefore, I invite you to take a power tool and insert it where the—

Tell her nothing is impossible. Tell her that love is what separates humans from other living creatures, not hatred. Not violence—

Consciousness and logic are not reliable standards. —COGITORS, Fundamental Postulate

No matter the challenge, his people knew how to endure.

A human captive had fought the machines! She had destroyed a robot with her own hands! Amazed, they called out her name.

Vor laughed, proud of his place here. He quoted what he’d been taught all his life. “I am the pinnacle of humanity—a trustee of Omnius, the son of General Agamemnon.

I can envision calculations all the way to infinity,” she said, as if in a trance. “I don’t have to write them down.

Anything imagined can be made real...given sufficient genius.

Fire has no form of its own, but clings to the burning object. Light clings to darkness. —Cogitor philosophy

Talk is based on the assumption that you can get somewhere if you keep putting one word after another. —IBLIS GINJO, notes in the margin of a stolen notebook

Each of us influences the actions of the people we know. —XAVIER HARKONNEN, comment to his men

My father lied to me! He distorted the events, taking credit, hiding the extent of the brutality and suffering—even Omnius knew it. On the other hand, Serena had told him the truth.

Savant, doesn’t it strike you as somewhat…hypocritical that we fight to keep humans free from the domination of machines, while at the same time some of our own League Worlds use slaves?

Norma looked at him, puzzled. "Someone else to do the mathematics?" "Of course!" Holtzman brushed iron-gray hair away from his face and adjusted his white robe. "You're an *idea* person, like me. We want you to develop concepts, not bother with full-fledged implementation. You should not waste time performing tedious arithmetic. Any halfway-trained person can do that. It's what slaves are for.

The logic which is sound for a finite system is not necessarily sound for an infinite universe. Theories, like living things, do not always scale up. —ERASMUS, secret records (from the Omnius databank)

Do you know about the horrors during the Time of Titans? Or the Hrethgir Rebellions?” “I’ve read my father’s memoirs in great detail—” “I don’t mean Agamemnon’s propaganda. Have you learned the real history?

Serena grew angry. How could that representative worry about petty price tags, when the ultimate cost was so much higher? “We will all pay—in blood—if we do not do this. We must strengthen the League and the human species.

Vor stared for a moment at his own reflection in the familiar mirrored face, remembering some of the stupid jokes his friend had told and the innovative military games they had played together. Seurat had never harmed him in any way.

Even the most complex math can be broken into a sequence of trivial steps. Each of these slaves has been trained to complete specific equations in an assembly-line fashion. When taken together, this collective human mind is capable of remarkable feats." Holtzman surveyed the room as if he expected his solvers to give him a resounding cheer. Instead, they studied their work with heavy-lidded eyes, moving through equation after equation with no comprehension of reasons or larger pictures.

JIHAD, BUTLERIAN: (see also Great Revolt)-the crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots begun in 201 B.G. and concluded in 108 B.G. Its chief commandment remains in the O.C. Bible as "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.

I intend to create a new work of art, all my own. A still life, of sorts. You three will be vital parts of the process. Rejoice in your good fortune.” In the sterile environment of the laboratory, with the cold assistance of his personal robot guards, Erasmus proceeded to vivisect the trio of victims, oblivious to their screams. “I want to get to the heart of the matter,” he quipped, “the lifeblood of it.

Owing to the seductive nature of machines, we assume that technological advances are always improvements and always beneficial to humans.

Tlaloc realized how the human race had gone stagnant, how people had become so dependent on machines that they had nothing left but apathy. Their goals were gone, their drive, their passion. When they should have had nothing to do but unleash their creative impulses, they were too lazy to perform even the work of the imagination

Humans tried to develop intelligent machines as secondary reflex systems, turning over primary decisions to mechanical servants. Gradually, though, the creators did not leave enough to do for themselves; they began to feel alienated, dehumanized, and even manipulated. Eventually humans became little more than decisionless robots themselves, left without an understanding of their natural existence.

Spacing Guild: one leg of the political tripod maintaining the Great Convention. The Guild was the second mental-physical training school (see Bene Gesserit) after the Butlerian Jihad. The Guild monopoly on space travel and transport and upon international banking is taken as the beginning point of the Imperial Calendar.

La mente da órdenes al cuerpo, y este obedece de inmediato. La mente se da órdenes a sí misma, y encuentra resistencia.

The leaders of the Butlerian Jihad did not adequately define artificial intelligence, failing to foresee all possibilities of an imaginative society. Therefore, we have substantial gray areas in which to maneuver.

In response to the strict Butlerian taboo against machines that perform mental functions, a number of schools developed enhanced human beings to subsume most of the functions formerly performed by computers. Some of the key schools arising out of the Jihad include the Bene Gesserit with their intense mental and physical training, the Spacing Guild with the prescient ability to find a safe path through foldspace, and the Mentats, whose computerlike minds are capable of extraordinary acts of reasoning.

Assumptions are a transparent grid through which we view the universe, sometimes deluding ourselves that the grid is that universe. —COGITOR EKLO OF EARTH

Just because the situation has gone on for a thousand years, is that an excuse for us to become accustomed to it? The thinking machines have already escalated the war with their attack on Zimia and Rossak, their invasion of Giedi Prime. This Earth disaster is just another challenge.

Fanaticism is always a sign of repressed doubt.

Each human being is a time machine. —Zensunni Fire Poetry

The universe is a playground of improvisation—it follows no external pattern. —COGITOR RETICULUS, Observations from a Height of a Thousand Years

Humans are survivors. They do things for themselves and then attempt to conceal their motivations through elaborate subterfuges. Gift-giving is a prime example of behavior that is secretly selfish. -Erasmus

Machines are fully functional from the day of their programming.” Erasmus sounded smug. “That explains a lot. For us, life is a gradual developmental process. Without nurturing, we can’t survive,” she said. “You have never been nurtured. I think you should make improvements to the way you raise the slave children in your pens. Show them more kindness, encourage their curiosity.

I have run tests on the handsome young man— he is fine breeding stock. After your pregnancy is finished, would you like to mate with him?” Serena took an agitated breath, fixing her mind on memories of Xavier. “Mate? Regardless of how much you study us, there are many things your machine brain will never understand about human nature.” “We shall see about that,” he said, calmly.

The tapestry of the universe is vast and complex, with infinite patterns. While threads of tragedy may form the primary weave, humanity with its undaunted optimism still manages to embroider small designs of happiness and love. —COGITOR KWYNA, City of Introspection archives

Humans tried to develop intelligent machines as secondary reflex systems, turning over primary decisions to mechanical servants. Gradually, though, the creators did not leave enough to do for themselves; they began to feel alienated, dehumanized, and even manipulated. Eventually humans became little more than decisionless robots themselves, left without an understanding of their natural existence. —TLALOC, Weaknesses of the Empire

I fear that Norma will never amount to anything. How does that reflect on me and my own legacy to humanity? —ZUFA CENVA

One direction is as good as another. —saying of the Open Land

Time depends on the position of the observer and the direction in which he looks. —COGITOR KWYNA, City of Introspection archives

Conflict prolonged over an extended period tends to be self-perpetuating and can easily plunge out of control. —TLALOC, A Time for Titans

Careful preparations and defenses can never guarantee victory. However, ignoring these precautions is an almost certain recipe for defeat. —League Armada Strategy Manual

In the process of becoming slaves to machines, we transferred technical knowledge to them—without imparting proper value systems. —PRIMERO FAYKAN BUTLER, Memoirs of the Jihad

Humans were foolish to build their own competitors with an intelligence equivalent to their own. But they couldn’t help themselves. —BARBAROSSA, Anatomy of a Rebellion

Aristotle raped reason. He implanted in the dominant schools of philosophy the attractive belief that there can be discrete separation between mind and body. This led quite naturally to corollary delusions such as the one that power can be understood without applying it, or that joy is totally removable from unhappiness, that peace can exist in the total absence of war, or that life can be understood without death. —ERASMUS, Corrin Notes

If life is but a dream, then do we only imagine the truth? No! By following our dreams we make our own truths! —The Legend of Selim Wormrider

There is no place in all the universe as inviting as home and the comfortable relationships there. —SERENA BUTLER

Machines may be predictable, but we are also reliable. Conversely, humans change their beliefs and their loyalties with remarkable, and distressing, ease. —ERASMUS Erasmus Dialogues

Is there any greater joy than to return home? Are any other memories so vivid, any other hopes so bright? —SERENA BUTLER

Quite obviously, our problems do not come from what we invent, but from how we use our sophisticated toys. The difficulties stem not from our hardware or software, but from ourselves. —BARBAROSSA, Anatomy of a Rebellion

It’s not my problem. —saying of Ancient Earth

I don’t believe there is such a thing as a “lost cause”—only those without suitably dedicated followers. —SERENA BUTLER, address to League Parliament

There is no limit to my potential. I am capable of encompassing an entire universe. —secret Omnius data bank, damaged files

Nothing is permanent. —Cogitor saying

Humans deny a continuum of possibilities, an infinite number of realms into which their species may enter. —ERASMUS, notes on human nature

Monoliths are vulnerable. To endure, one must remain mobile, resilient, and diversified. —BOVKO MANRESA, First Viceroy of the League of Nobles

Science: Lost in its own mythos, redoubling its efforts when it has forgotten its aim. —NORMA CENVA, unpublished laboratory notebooks

We learned a negative thing from computers, that the setting of guidelines belongs to humans, not to machines. —RELL ARKOV, charter meeting of the League of Nobles

There is a certain hubris to science, a belief that the more we develop technology and the more we learn, the better our lives will be. —TLALOC, A Time for Titans

Opportunities are a tricky crop, with tiny flowers that are difficult to see and even more difficult to harvest. —ANONYMOUS

One of the questions the Butlerian Jihad answered with violence was whether the human body is simply a machine that a man-made machine can duplicate. The results of the war answered the question. —DR. RAJID SUK, Post-Trauma Analysis of the Human Species

The eyes of common perception do not see far. Too often we make the most important decisions based only on superficial information. —NORMA CENVA, unpublished laboratory notebooks

Support thy brother, whether he be just or unjust. —Zensunni saying

Humans are survivors. They do things for themselves and then attempt to conceal their motivations through elaborate subterfuges. Gift-giving is a prime example of behavior that is secretly selfish. —ERASMUS, slave pen notes

Learn from the past—don’t wear it like a yoke around your neck. —COGITOR RETICULUS, Observations from a Height of a Thousand Years

Of all the subjects of human behavior, two are most storied: warfare and love. —COGITOR EKLO, Ruminations on Things Lost

Regrets, there are many, and I have my share. —SERENA BUTLER, unpublished memoirs

Is there an upper limit to the intelligence of machines, and a lower limit to the stupidity of humans? —BOVKO MANRESA, First Viceroy of the League of Nobles

Animals must move across land to survive—for water, for food, for minerals. Existence depends upon some kind of movement: you move, or the land kills you where you stand. —Imperial Ecological Survey of Arrakis, ancient records

Greed, anger, and ignorance poison life. —COGITOR EKLO OF EARTH, Beyond the Human Mind

Life is the sum of the forces that resist death. —SERENA BUTLER

Is a religion real if it costs nothing and carries no risk? —IBLIS GINJO, note in the margin of a stolen notebook

Every large-scale movement—political, religious, or military—hinges upon epochal events. —PITCAIRN NARAKOBE, League Worlds Study of Conflict

Over the course of history, the stronger species invariably wins. —TLALOC, A Time for Titans

The future? I hate it because I will not be there. —JUNO, Lives of the Titans

The gravest error a thinking person can make is to believe that one particular version of history is absolute fact. History is recorded by a series of observers, none of whom is impartial. The facts are distorted by sheer passage of time and—especially in the case of the Butlerian Jihad—thousands of years of humanity’s dark ages, deliberate misrepresentations by religious sects, and the inevitable corruption that comes from an accumulation of careless mistakes. The wise person, then, views history as a set of lessons to be learned, choices and ramifications to be considered and discussed, and mistakes that should never again be made. —PRINCESS IRULAN, preface to the History of the Butlerian Jihad

amber-brown hair highlighted by natural golden strands.

The mind commands the body and immediately it obeys. The mind orders itself, and meets resistance. —ST. AUGUSTINE, ancient Earth philosopher

Logic is blind and often knows only its own past. —archives from Genetics to Philosophy, compiled by the Sorceresses of Rossak

Every endeavor is a game, is it not? —IBLIS GINJO, Options for Total Liberation