I'm re-reading Dune...

I do love me a good quote. :)

Thus spoke St. Alia-of-the-Knife: "The Reverend Mother must combine the seductive wiles of a courtesan with the untouchable majesty of a virgin goddess, holding these attributes in tension so long as the powers of her youth endure. For when youth and beauty have gone, she will find that the place-between, once occupied by tension, has become a well-spring of cunning and resourcefulness."

- from "Muad'Dib, Family
Commentaries"
by the Princess Irulan"

yup. :)

the willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows -- a wall against the wind. This is the willow's purpose.

i should find the source religion or spirituality for that particular gem...and this one...

a process cannot be understood by stopping it. understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.

and this...

It is, however, vital to an understanding of Muad'Dib's religious impact that you never lose sight of one fact: the Fremen were a desert people whose entire ancestry was accustomed to hostile landscapes. Mysticism isn't difficult when you survive each second by surmounting open hostility.