40k Quotes

“Everything is darkest," Xaphen mused, "before the dawn."

"That, my brother, is an axiom that sounds immensely profound until you realize it's a lie.”
― Aaron Dembski-Bowden, The First Heretic

“Regard the books,' Sinderman said,
'Are there some I should read? Will you prepare a list for me?' (asked Loken)
'Read them all. Read them again. Swallow the learning and ideas of our predecessors whole, for it can only improve you as a man...”
― Dan Abnett, Horus Rising

“For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the Master of Mankind by the will of the gods and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium, for whom a thousand souls die every day, for whom blood is drunk and flesh eaten. Human blood and human flesh – the stuff of which the Imperium is made. To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. This is the tale of those times.

Forget the power of technology, science and common humanity. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for there is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter and the laughter of thirsting gods.”
― Dan Abnett

“I heard from a contact on Mars, Jaghatai, that you do strange things to your ships." The Khan shot him a heavy-lidded stare. "I heard from a contact that you do strange things to your warriors.”
― Chris Wraight, Scars

“You’ll scream just as he did,’ Xarl said with a smile.

The Champion showed no reaction. He didn’t even move. ‘I knew that warrior,’ he said with
solemn care. ‘He was Caleus, born of Newfound, and I know he died as he lived: with courage,
honour, and knowing no fear.’

Xarl swept his chainsword across the scene, gesturing at the prone forms of First Claw. ‘I know all
of these warriors. They are First Claw, and I know they’ll die as they lived: trying to run away.”
― Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Void Stalker

“The Hall of Tra was cold and lightless. His wolf-eye caught the ghost radiation of barely smouldering firepits. In terms of heat and light, the Wolves were making no allowances for human tolerances of comfort. They had given him a pelt and an eye to see through the dark with. What more could he want? He realised he wasn’t alone. The company was all around him. Their body heat was barely detectable, dimmer than the dull firepits. The Hall was a massive natural cavern, ragged and irregular, and the Astartes were ranged around it, huddled and coiled in their furs, as immobile as a sibling pack of predators, gone to ground overnight, dormant and pressed close for warmth. Faces cowled by animal skin hoods were watching his approach. There were occasional grumbles and murmurs, like animals growling in their sleep or tussling over bones. As his eye resolved the scene better, the Upplander saw some evidence of movement. He saw hands casually raise silver bowls and dishes so that men could sip black liquid from them. He saw hunched shapes engaged in the counter game, hneftafl, that the Upplander had seen Skarsi playing.”
― Dan Abnett, Prospero Burns

“The war is over, Diocletian. Win or lose, Horus has damned us all. Mankind will share in his ignorance until the last man or woman draws the species’ last breath. The warp will forever be a cancer in the heart of all humans. The Imperium may last a hundred years, or a thousand, or ten thousand. But it will fall, Diocletian. It will fall. The shining path is lost to us. Now we rage against the dying of the light.”
― Aaron Dembski-Bowden, The Master of Mankind

“And in a sunless realm, the sun rose at last.”
― Aaron Dembski-Bowden, The Master of Mankind

“Nostramo. A lawless and sunless place. It burned not because it was guilty but because we failed to keep it innocent. Our laws failed the moment we sailed away to the stars and in desperate embarrassment our father incinerated the evidence of his failure.”
― Aaron Dembski-Bowden, The Long Night

“Truth is, Frauka, none of us know you very well at all. We can't read you.'
'Story of my life. You have no idea whatsoever how hard it is to be an untouchable. Everyone feels the absence, and it makes them uncomfortable. You get treated like shit. Working for Ravenor's the only decent job I've ever had, the only time I've felt worth anything. I guess that's over now, isn't it? Get off my back. I've covered yours long enough, and I deserve more respect, even if I make you uncomfortable.”
― Dan Abnett, Ravenor Rogue

“It takes a vast amount of self control to be this dangerous.”
― Dan Abnett, Prospero Burns

“I am told to demand millions of men and women from these new worlds, to make them take up arms in the Emperor's hordes, and I am told to call this a tithe, or recruitment, because we are too scared of the truth. We refuse to call it slavery.”
― Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Betrayer

“ Your pride is oh so very great, and your fall will be oh so very far… ”
― Danie Ware, The Book of Change

“What will you do now?’
‘Whatever I can. As useless as that might be.”
― David Annandale

“You are a ghost, a figure that stands between light and dark, trapped amid the grey. And I have need of such a man." - Malcador the Sigillite”
― James Swallow

“One tends to accept most things my father says. It is not a matter of His word being law, although it unquestionably is. It is more the case that His word is truth. You come to see that, of course, what He has said must be the case. And if it is not, by some standard of measurement, the truth, then you can be sure that steps will be taken to ensure that it becomes true. In such a manner does my father organize the world to His desires.”
― Chris Wraight, Jaghatai Khan: Warhawk of Chogoris

“Although I accept what I once regarded as superstitions as occulted fact, my grasp of the esoteric is limited. My guess is that they are a type of psyker, whose empowerment is stabilised by their faith in the Emperor. The Sisters of Battle manifest psychic effects when sorely pressed, and these are brought on by their faith. It may be a saint is merely an extreme example of this phenomenon.”
― Guy Haley, Plague War

“The girl's abilities are subdued by hexagrammatic chains. She is blanked by Obsidian Knight Voi. If she were a vessel of the Emperor's will, neither of these things would affect her.”
― Guy Haley, Plague War

“Revealing the truth of daemonkind would have strengthened them enormously, for men would never have been able to put them from their thoughts, and that made them strong.
The Emperor had been trying to save humanity from the horror of its own mind.”
― Guy Haley, Plague War

“Rejoice, for I bring you glorious news.
God walks among us.
So ran the first two lines of the Lectitio Divinitatus.”
― Guy Haley, Plague War

“You brought us here to ask if the Emperor is a god, for that is where this conversation is going, but the questions you should be asking yourself are, "Am I a god?" and "If I am a god, am I free?”
― Guy Haley, Godblight

“Come on, I mean it, tell me, how does it work?' said Maxentius-Drontio. 'I am interested, and not just because I am bored.'
'Hmm, calculating potential for targeted, induced social embarrassment.' The magos stopped, stock-still. Something clicked in his chest. 'Risks acceptable. Bond with me. Pass me that size nine molecular manipulator, please, in order to initiate emotional pairing,' said Fe.”
― Guy Haley, Godblight

“The stuff you know...' she mocked. 'Though you're still a pussy.'
Thonius snorted, but he didn't deny it. Anyone shy of an Adeptus Astartes in full Terminator plate was a pussy compared to Patience Kys.”
― Dan Abnett, Ravenor

“Abandon the limitations of what you think is possible and you are left with a universe that is truly infinite. That realisation is the root of all power. Cage your mind with the possible and you have stolen your own future.

- Rumination of the primarch Magnus the Red,
recorded in the Athenaeum of Kalimakus”
― John French, Ahriman: Sorcerer

“Your loyalty to your companion is commendable, but displays signs of attachment. You cannot be husband to one, you must be brother to all.”
― Guy Haley, The Last Days of Ector

“As far as it could be grasped, orkoid minds seemed capable of believing more than one objective truth at the same time. Indeed, they could hold several entirely contradictory facts in their conscious reckoning at once, and not feel the slightest bit of mental discomfort.”
― Nate Crowley, Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh!

“You are under my control now. There will be no memory of you except that which I choose to give you, and what I shall give, you will not like.”
― David Annandale, The Deacon of Wounds

“To knowingly welcome ignorance is not his way.”
― Mike Brooks, The Lion: Son of the Forest

“Vae Victis"
Written by R.J. Williamson

What gods hast thou, that bow before the might of mortal men?
Surrendered now in ignorance; enslaved before the pen
Of magistrates and potentates less powerful than thee:
What makers vested strength within the legs that bend the knee?

What then of their countenance, their handiwork to see?
Cry then! Cry out unto them and witness unto me!

What chains and shackles hobble thee – what burden giveth pause?
What fearsome power maketh thee unworthy of thy cause?
What of the faith and principles thou surely must despise,
To supplicate in deference before a throne of lies?

Count for me the years before the soul of freedom dies.
Art thou now a servant and a slave in thine own eyes?

What fools are we, who in false grace before accusers bowed
And in our hubris and our haste their tyranny allowed.”
― R.J. Williamson

“Historians toil at the past, but they write for the future. That's the point of them. If I know there are historians still at work, it tells me there will be a future. I think that might strengthen my resolve. The idea of a future, a far future, that will exist and want to remember. It would fortify my purpose and offer me hope. If the historians give up, then we're admitting an end is coming. Go do the work the emperor once gave you and remind me that some future is still a possibility for us.”
― Dan Abnett