This, to me, is the kind of stuff that really makes roleplaying games fun. The next time your PCs stand before a king, general, or politician, try to throw one of these quotes into the mix:
BENE GESSERIT SAYINGS
These are illusions of popular history which a successful religion must promote: Evil men never prosper; only the brave deserve the fair; honesty is the best policy; actions speak louder than words; virtue always triumphs; a good deed is its own reward; any bad human can be reformed; religious talismans protect one from demon possession; only females understand the ancient mysteries; the rich are doomed to unhappiness . . .
From the Instruction Manual: Missionaria Protectiva
Those who would repeat the past must control the teaching of history.
Bene Gesserit Coda
We tend to become like the worst in those we oppose.
Bene Gesserit Coda
All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.
Missionara Protectiva,
Text QIV (decto)
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.
Bene Gesserit Coda
All states are abstractions.
Octun Politicus
Bene Gesserit Archives
Do not depend only on theory if your life is at stake.
Bene Gesserit Commentary
Major flaws in government arise from a fear of making radical internal changes even though a need is clearly seen.
Darwi Odrade
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.
The Coda
There's no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves.
Darwi Odrade
KLINGON PROVERBS
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Four thousand throats may be cut in one night by a running man.
Only a fool fights in a burning house. -Kang
A fool and his head are soon parted.
The wind does not respect a fool. -Kahless
Destroying an Empire to win a war is no victory. And ending a battle to save an Empire is no defeat. -Kahless
A leader is judged not by the length of his reign but by the decisions he makes. -Kahless
Great men do not seek power; it is thrust upon them. -Kahless
You cannot loosen a man's tongue with root beer. -Original Klingon: unknown
Act, and you may eat dinner. Think, and you may be dinner. -Original Klingon: unknown
Mere life is not a victory, mere death is not a defeat. -Original Klingon: unknown
Today is a good day to die. -Worf
To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. -Kahless
If winning is not important, why keep score? –Worf
QUOTES FROM MACHIAVELLI
A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.
Niccolo Machiavelli
A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.
Niccolo Machiavelli
A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Before all else, be armed.
Niccolo Machiavelli
For among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible; which is one of those disgraceful things which a prince must guard against.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.
Niccolo Machiavelli
He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Hence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.
Niccolo Machiavelli
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
Niccolo Machiavelli
It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
Niccolo Machiavelli
It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
Niccolo Machiavelli
It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.
Niccolo Machiavelli
It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries – for heavy ones they cannot.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Politics have no relation to morals.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.
Niccolo Machiavelli
There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.
Niccolo Machiavelli
There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.
Niccolo Machiavelli
War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.
Niccolo Machiavelli
We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.
Niccolo Machiavelli
When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself.
Niccolo Machiavelli
upgrades his Heavy Gear force with a second squad from the new boxed set.
happens……deal with it.