quote · Words worth keeping
Government cannot be religious and self-assertive at the same time. Religious experience needs a spontaneity which laws inevitably suppress. And you cannot govern without laws. Your laws eventually must replace morality, replace conscience, replace even the religion by which you think to govern. Sacred ritual must spring from praise and holy yearnings which hammer out a significant morality. Government, on the other hand, is a cultural organism particularly attractive to doubts, questions and contentions. I see the day coming when ceremony must take the place of faith and symbolism replaces morality.
Government cannot be religious and self-assertive at the same time. Religious experience needs a spontaneity which laws inevitably suppress. And you cannot govern without laws. Your laws eventually must replace morality, replace conscience, replace even the religion by which you think to govern. Sacred ritual must spring from praise and holy yearnings which hammer out a significant morality. Government, on the other hand, is a cultural organism particularly attractive to doubts, questions and contentions. I see the day coming when ceremony must take the place of faith and symbolism replaces morality.
Approximate historical placement: c. 1953 AD · modern
Meaning not yet available
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- Author or tradition
- Frank Herbert
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate historical placement: c. 1953 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1920 to 1986; Wikidata Q7934, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7934 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 262007; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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