My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. 'Something cannot emerge from nothing,' he said. This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable 'the truth' can be.
Frank HerbertRead
Nature does not make mistakes. Right and wrong are human categories.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Nature operates without human error; concepts of right and wrong are human constructs.
In this quote, Frank Herbert emphasizes that the natural world functions on its own principles, free from the constraints of human morality. He suggests that our understanding of right and wrong is a subjective framework imposed by humans, whereas nature itself is indifferent to such classifications, operating in a neutral and objective manner.
Themes
NatureHumanMistakesRightWrongMorality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in an environmental speech to emphasize the impartiality of nature.
More from Frank Herbert
All quotes βIf you need something to worship, then worship life - all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!
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Religion must remain an outlet for people who say to themselves, "I am not the kind of person I want to be." It must never sink into an assemblage of the self-satisfied.
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To know a thing well, know it's limits; Only when pushed beyond it's tolerance will it's true nature be seen. -The Amtal Rule
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Technology tends toward avoidance of risks by investors. Uncertainty is ruled out if possible. People generally prefer the predictable. Few recognize how destructive this can be, how it imposes severe limits on variability and thus makes whole populations fatally vulnerable to the shocking ways our universe can throw the dice.
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It is impossible to live in the past, difficult to live in the present and a waste to live in the future.
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