I have many.
"An open mind is like a fortress with its gate unbarred and unguarded"
"Space marines wear no camouflage, because what you can see you can learn to fear"
"Another day nearer the battle
So drink up, lads and look brave.
For another day nearer the battle
Is another day nearer the grave."
"Do not ask which creature screams in the night. Do not ask who crouches in the shadow. For it is my voice that wakes you in the night And me who watches you from the shadow.
I am Tzeentch and you are the puppet
That dances to my tune."
'Orkses is never beaten in battle. If we win we win, if we die so it don't count as beat. If we runs for it we don't die neither, so we can always come back for anuvver go, see!'
"We're the Death Korps of Krieg, son. Did you think that was just a pretty name? We never retreat. We fight and we die, that's the Krieg way."
"Kill! Maim! Burn! Kill! Maim! Burn! Kill! Maim! Burn! Kill! Maim! Burn! Kill! Maim! Burn! Kill! Maim! Burn! Kill! Maim! Burn!"
That last one was attributed to Kharn the Betrayer BTW, made me laugh
"Beastman bad. Bad Beastman. Dirty. Emperor no like. Beastman love Emperor. Give blood to Emperor, Give heads to Emperor. Say sorry." - Packmaster Grasht
I have many, including the entire Black Templar's Chaplain Grimaldus' speech when the Orks first attack Helsreach Hive at the Third War for Armageddon but there is one quote I honestly can relate to, daily:
"I don't have time to die...I'm too busy!" - High Lord Vandire's final words, Age of Apostasy
ashcroft wrote: "Beastman bad. Bad Beastman. Dirty. Emperor no like. Beastman love Emperor. Give blood to Emperor, Give heads to Emperor. Say sorry." - Packmaster Grasht
"Some may question your right to consign a billion souls to oblivion. Those who understand know that you have no right to let them live."
"I'm excusing a lot because I recognize the trauma and the loss you have suffered. But my patience isn't limitless... unlike my authority." - Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn
"There is no such thing as a plea of innocence in my court. A plea of innocence is guilty of wasting my time. Guilty." - Inquisitor Fyodor Karamazov
"Dieing Race? This during Race just wiped out all of my men!"
"Though I have seen within the Black Library and spoken to its most terrible guardian, I can never reveal what happened there; not to any man nor even the Emperor himself for I am so forsworn to powers beyond your knowledge. I can only say that a time of inconceivable horror is about to begin. A time when mankind with all the might of the Imperium cannot endure when the strength of the Eldar fails. Even now, our doom stalks us across the stars."
"Let not the fear of death stay your hand nor defeat your courage. The warrior who will prevail is the one who conquers death, who becomes one with death as we have."
just a few of my favorites
"From Iron, cometh Strength. From Strength, cometh Will. From Will, cometh Faith. From Faith, cometh Honour. From Honour, cometh Iron. This is the Unbreakable Litany, and may it forever be so."
"All is Dust..."
"There is no such thing as a plea of innocence in my court. A plea of innocence is guilty of wasting my time. Guilty."
"From Iron, cometh Strength. From Strength, cometh Will. From Will, cometh Faith. From Faith, cometh Honour. From Honour, cometh Iron. This is the Unbreakable Litany, and may it forever be so."
"All is Dust..."
"There is no such thing as a plea of innocence in my court. A plea of innocence is guilty of wasting my time. Guilty."
These, and the one from In Externminatus Extremis, plus-
The Big E's Space Marine Speech.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!' -Every single Berzerker ever.
Take their skulls, Kharn. Build me a throne." -The Primarch Angron, after his ascension.
"Viris colratha dath sethicara tesh dasovallian. Solrathis veh za jass."
"Ave Dominus Nox!" -The Night Lords.
and of course,
"Death to the False Emperor!" -First Captain Sevetar, of the Night Lords.
"Ask not the Eldar a question, for they will give you three answers, all of which are true and terrifying to know."
"God-Emperor? Calling him a god was how all this mess started,"
"Are any of these people available for questioning?
-Not unless you want to stick your head down a tyranid's throat and shout "anyone at home?"
!What I cannot crush with words I will crush with the tanks of the Imperial Guard!! - Solar Macharius
When in deadly danger,
When beset by doubt,
Run in little circles,
Wave your arms and shout.
- Parody of the Litany of Command, popular among Commissar Cadets
None in particualr, a fellow recruit in basic training would mutter ''Hope is the first step on the road to disapointement'' whenever someone else would ''I hope X''
"That man is beset at all quarters by traitors, mutants and fiends is self-evident. But in truth none of these evils shall be our undoing.
When the end comes it will be not at the hand of any mortal being of this or any other realm: death will come at the hands of the ancients, those who determined our fate aeons before we stood erect upon the holy ground of Terra and gazed up into the starry night."
- Second Book of Admonitions
"The Orks are the pinnacle of creation. For them, the great struggle is won. They have evolved a society which knows no stress or angst. Who are we to judge them? We Eldar who have failed, or the Humans, on the road to ruin in their turn? And why? Because we sought answers to questions that an Ork wouldn't even bother to ask! We see a culture that is strong and despise it as crude." --Uthan the Perverse
"Do not grieve for the fallen, you will only waste time. Instead, pity the living."
"Victory does not always rest with the big guns: but, if we rest in front of them we shall be lost."
"Come you aliens, show me what passes for fury amongst your misbegotten kind!"
"No Fear! No Pity! NO REMORSE!"
"Show me a fortress and I'll show you a ruin."
"Dem Inquisishun humies can't be trusted any further dan day can be thrown, which in dat one's case might be a bad example."
"Travellin' through space is boring. Well, boring unless da hulk yer on is full of dem gene-sneakers, or a base fer da chaos lads wiv da spikes, or already has Boyz on it. Or if humie lootas come callin', that's always good fer a bit a sport. Or unless yer have a mutiny or two to pass da time, or unless strange fings start happenin', which dey usually do when yer out in da warp. One time we had some bloody great ugly fing come straight out of Weird Lugwort's 'ed! It butchered half da lads, that was pretty entertainin'. Come ter fink of it, space is a pretty good larf. And that's before yer find yerself a nice world ta crush!"
"I will never forget what I saw at Obsidian Station. The bones of five thousand brave men lay scattered about the winding corridors. Their blood was slick upon the walls and floors of the dormitories. Their innards were hung from control panels like grotesque decorations of some insane celebration. But not a single skull was to be found; taken as sick trophies by these despicable attackers."
"You think to challenge me, pitiful human? I, the bane of empires. the father of pain? Let me educate you; I need a new pet..."
Hope we're not confined to a word count here, because if we are i've exceeded it
The entire Ork codex, namely that on ork boyz view of humanity and its failing.
Automatically Appended Next Post: also not a direct quote from in the game, but "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war" remains awesome.
"Do you hear the voices too?!" Possessed from DoW2
"Please, no more kicking!" Gretchin from DoW2
"Only the insane have the strength enough to prosper. Only those who prosper may truly judge what is sane." Anonymous
"Though my sentries may sleep and my ships may rest at anchor, our foes know full well that big guns never tire." Huron Blackheart, Astral Claws-era
And, my personal favourite ever,
The Field Adaptation Of Adeptus Astartes Battle Doctrine!!!
"Thou shalt not stick a 'Honk if you think I'm sexy' bumper sticker on a Sister of Battle's rhino.
Thou shalt not honk if you see a 'Honk if you think I'm sexy' bumper sticker on a Sister of Battle's rhino.
Thou shalt not use a Lasgun to heat canned meat.
Thou shalt not use thy captain's Powerfist to open canned meat.
Orks are not 'cute'.
Thou shalt not ask a Sister of Battle if you might 'Deposit some of your geneseed'.
Thou shalt not use the phrase 'If the rhino be a-rocking, don't come a-knocking'.
Thou shalt not tip the Terminators during the battle.
Thou shalt not walk around a Librarian thinking "Can you hear me?"
Thou shalt not pin "Burn Me" on a S.O.B's back.
Thou shalt not Deep Strike into the Sisters of Battle shower room.
Thou shalt not ask if thy can take the Titan "For a spin?"
Thou shalt not use a lasgun as a lighter.
Thou shalt not replace thy brother's bolter with a lasgun." Anonymous
Rogal Dorn wrote:There is no enemy. The foe on the battlefield is merely the manifestation of that which we must overcome. He is doubt, and fear, and despair. Every battle is fought within. Conquer the battlefield that lies inside you, and the enemy disappears like the illusion he is.
"Dear lady, let me express my fulsome appreciation for your most generous gift. It is so very rare to discover another of my own kind that appreciates my work, therefore to find understanding amongst a member of another race is nothing short of a revelation.
I realise that you briefly trod my galleries, but the fact that you spotted in so short time that my Acabriu War Collection was lacking three regiments of Catachan warriors reveals that you truly have a collector's eye for detail. And to send five regiments! Such generosity will allow me to weed out and replace a few of the more substandard pieces in my collection.
If I might level a minor criticism, the instructions issued to your gift were manifestly not as clear as you thought, as most of them had to be forcibly restrained - sadly it seems that the lower orders will always behave like an army of invasion, whether that be their purpose or not. However, this is a minor complaint and seems almost churlish under the circumstances, so please allow me to repay your gift with one of my own. Accompanying this message is the Hyperstone Maze, one of a series of tesseract labyrinths constructed at the height of the Charnovokh Dynasty. It is a trinket really, of interest only to scholars like you and I, but I trust you will find it amusing - assuming you have the wit to escape its clutches of course."
-hyperscroll message from Trazyn the Infinite to Inquisitor Valeria, c887.805.M41
Got a few good ones taken not from the fluff, but from actual gameplay with the group I frequently play with. All army guys with the exception of my younger brother, which explains a lot...
Upon having multiple platoons of guardsmen wiped off the board in a single shooting phase "They know what they signed up for!"
Anytime something explodes in a sufficiently violent manner "FREEEEEDOMMMMmmmm". (Think WAAAAGH style volume on this)
And anytime a model is removed or a vehicle is immobilized by terrain "Embrace the suck, ladies".
Going from memory so I might be a bit off:
"Brothers! Everyone in this room is going to die!"
"I am a son of the sunless world and Eighth Legion to my core. Of course I'm lying Trez, its what we do."
"Fallen you say? My dear Brother... there is no fall. All you do is take a slow walk through the truths of your own mind."
-Some Chaos Sorceror...cant remember from where
"Blood Ravens, hear me! I am Araghast The Pillager! Master of Hounds, the Lash of the Black Legion! You, and ALL your kind are COWARDS! LOWLY LICKSPITTLES! You must be emulating that pathetic pile of bones you call your Emperor! You are as dead and as useless as him! I am destroying your worlds, Blood Ravens, yet you do nothing! I see your precious craft, hanging in orbit above Aurelia! I AM HERE! FACE ME, IF YOU DARE!!!"
-Araghast the Pillager
"Dear lady, let me express my fulsome appreciation for your most generous gift. It is so very rare to discover another of my own kind that appreciates my work.Therefore to find understanding amongst the member of another race is nothing short of a revelation.
I realize that you briefly trod my galleries, but the fact you spotted in so short a time that my Acabrius War collection was lacking three regiments of Cadian warriors reveals you truly have a collector's eye for detail. And to send five regiments! Such generosity will allow me to weed out and replace a few of the more substandard pieces of my collection.
If I might level a minor criticism, the instructions issued to your gift were manifestly not as clear as you thought, as most of them had to be forcibly restrained- sadly it seems that the lower orders will always behave like an army of invasion, whether that be their purpose or not. However, this is a minor complaint and almost seems churlish under the circumstances so let please allow me to repay your gift with one of my own. Accompanying this message is the Hyperstone Maze, one in a series of tesseract labyrinths constructed at the height of the Charnovokh Dynasty. It is a trinket really, of interest only to scholars such as you and I, but I trust you will find it amusing - assuming you have the wit to escape its clutches of course."
- Trazyn the Infinite
Spoiler:
"Faithful... enlightened... ambitious... brethren.
In but a single decade, a few mere swipes of the pendulum, we have gathered a sacrifice to Khorne that will be made legend.
Though it was a simpler, weaker voice that illuminated me during my centuries upon the Judgement of Carrion...
...it was Khorne's messenger that showed me the true path of freedom from our pathetic corpse-Emperor.
And what is this path? This meaning, this purpose to which we gather the skulls of our foes?
It is nothing. There is no meaning, no purpose. We murder. We kill. It is mindless savagery, this UNIVERSE IS MINDLESS!
In mere hours, billions will die. Innocent! Guilty! Strong and weak! Honest and deceitful! ALL of them!
They will scream, they will burn, and for no purpose but that mighty Khorne may revel in their bloodshed!
And united in this void of purpose, fear, or duty... we shall at long last be free!
Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne! LET THE GALAXY BURN!"
-Aziriah Kyras (Bit of a minor spoiler for DOW so this one's in... spoilers)
"Oomans is pink and soft, not tough and green like da boyz. Dey'ze all da same size too, dere's no big 'uns or little 'uns, so dey'ze always arguin' wiv each uvver over who's in charge, cos dere's no way ta tell, 'cept fer badges an' ooniforms and fings. When one of dem wants ta lord it over da uvvers, 'e says "I'm very speshul so you lot got ta worship me" or "I know summink wot you lot don't know, so yer better lissen good." Da funny fing is, 'arf of 'em believes it and da over 'arf don't, so 'e has ta hit 'em all anyway or run fer it. Wot a lot 'o mukkin' about if yer asks me. And while dey'ze all arguin' wiv each uvver over who's in charge, da Orks can come along an' clobber da lot!"
"A moment of laxity spawns a lifetime of heresy." -Dark Angels
"Anyone who trusts an agent of the Inquisition has earned the right to be named naive, Cyneric. There is a reason the Adeptus Astartes stand apart from the Imperium - autonomous; loyal to the empire's ideals, but rarely its function. The Lions' most grievous error was forgetting that."
Black Templars Reclusiarch Merek Grimaldus remarking on his thoughts of the Celestial Lions' betrayal to his Chaplain Initiate Cyneric
"Us Blood axes have learnt a lot from da humies. How best ta kill 'em, fer example." - Korporal Snagbrat of the Dreadblade Kommandos
I heard a fellow gamer at my local club just say this to his opponent as he noticed he was using Tyranids. Thought it was funny, its a 40k quote but not in the usual sense:
"You know, i used to play Sisters of Battle once. I played a Tyranid army with my SoB's once too.
When i won the battle, i realised a Genestealer had taken my virginity during turn 4."
Also, i got a hold of a Battlefleet Gothic book, which was stuffed to the brim with quotes. Here's my favourite, which i think aptly sums up the horror of war:
"Within the five-mile-long Chaos Battlecruiser Planet Killer's central cavity our sensors detected a massive power surge. Energy crackled from a number of ports on the hull. Then, with a blast that blotted out the sun on our scanners, it opened fire.
The energy beam lasted for about half an hour. Emperor knows how the Traitors could generate that much energy. We linked in to the planetary surveyors to see what was happening on the surface. The bolt of searing plasma had bored its way through the planet's crust and burned a hole to the planet's inner mantle layer. As the attack finished, the magma in the planet's core surged forth from the continent-sized wound, breaking apart the planet Savaven from within. The seas boiled into the skies, the ice caps melted and both hemispheres sunk beneath the tidal wave. With such an unimaginable release of energy Savaven was blown out of its natural orbit and actually flipped over on its axis!
I guess nobody was alive by then, but if they were they didn't last much longer. Like an Imperial Navy rations pack crushed in your fist, Savaven just crumpled in on herself, then broke up into thousands of fragments. There's only an asteroid field there now, really dense, impossible to navigate.
There were fourteen billion people living on Savaven back then.
Fourteen billion dead in under an hour."
-Jeremiah Soldagen, commander of Savaven's orbital defense systems
"The Lord Commander is fortunate to have you as his right hand man, Commissar Holt. No living Commissar holds more respect." - Captain Agrippa of the Ultramarines.
"Goodbye, Agrippa." - Commissar Holt, stone cold badass.
_______________________________________________________________________________
"By the grace of Saint Katherine!" - Me, before rolling for the Shield of Faith.
the shrouded lord wrote: "INTO THE FIRES OF BATTLE! "
"FOR THE FALLEN"
"FOR THE DRAKE LORD!"
"vulkan lives."
Guess which chapter I like.
Ultramarines.
"Heroes of Armageddon! You have withstood the evil savagery of the Orks, and they having nothing left for you to fear. So raise high the black banners of vengeance - now is our time."
From the most badass humie alive, Commissar Yarrick.
"I am remaining on the war-world. Someone must fight alongside the Lions, saving them from futile glory and the worst excesses of their otherwise pure blood. ...The Lions have no Chaplains remaining, and they are our cousins. Honour and brotherhood demand this of me. The Lions cannot call upon the resources of their hive city, but they will not fight alone....Let Volcanus hide behind its walls. Helsreach is going to war."
-Grimaldus
What is your life?
My honour is my life.
What is your fate?
My duty is my fate.
What is your fear?
My fear is to fail.
What is your reward?
My salvation is my reward.
What is your craft?
My craft is death.
What is your pledge?
My pledge is eternal service.
-Space Marine pledge
"We do not know what our chances of survival are, so we fight as if they were zero. We do not know what we are facing, so we fight as if it was the dark gods themselves. No one will remember us now and we may never be buried beneath Titan, so we will build our own memorial here. The Chapter might lose us and the Imperium might never know we existed, but the Enemy - the Enemy will know. The Enemy will remember. We will hurt it so badly that it will never forget us until the stars burn out and the Emperor vanquishes it at the end of time. When Chaos is dying, its last thought will be of us. That is our memorial - carved into the heart of Chaos. We cannot lose, Grey Knights. We have already won."
-Justicar Alaric of the Grey Knights
"Camouflage is the colour of fear... I have no need to hide from my foes... I have no fear of death. My colours I wear openly, they proclaim louder than any words, "I am proud to live - I am proud to die"
"Sir recon teams report not notable weaknesses among the enemy.. except. ."
"Except what?"
"Except it seems the xenos are unable to swim sir."
"Perfect, we'll drown them in bodies!"
-Unknown imperial commander during tactica brief
The uniforms of the Imperial Guard are camouflaged in order to protect their wearers by hiding them from sight.
The principle is that what the enemy cannot see he cannot kill. This is not the way of the Adeptus Astartes. A Space Marine’s armour is bright with heraldry that proclaims his devotion to his Chapter and the beloved Emperor of Mankind. Our principle is that what the enemy can see, he will soon learn to fear
-Chaplain Aston, Fire Hawks
"One unbreakable shield against the coming darkness, One last blade forged in defiance of fate, Let them be my legacy to the galaxy I conquered, And my final gift to the species I failed."
— Inscription upon the Arcus Daemonica, attributed to the Emperor of Mankind, regarding the Grey Knights.
We do not know what our chances are, so we fight as if they were zero. We do not know what we are facing, so we fight as if it was the dark gods themselves. No one will remember us now and we may never be buried beneath Titan, so we will build our own memorial here. The Chapter might lose us and the Imperium might never know we existed, but the Enemy – the Enemy will know. The Enemy will remember. We will hurt it so badly that it will never forget us until the stars burn out and the Emperor vanquishes it at the end of time. When Chaos is dying, its last thought will be of us. That is our memorial – carved into the heart of Chaos. We cannot lose, Grey Knights. We have already won.
-Justicar Alaric
"You… are as guilty… as we are. This is the Imperium of Man, Old Wolf, not a fabled empire of bliss and joy. We are the Emperor’s Gift. We know what must be done. We never let stubborn pride and misplaced kindness blind us to the real enemy. . . . We are both guilty in this war."
-Hyperion, Bladebreaker
"The greatest sculptors of stone would have thrown away their hammers, awls and rasps at the sight of the Phoenician, knowing they would never be able to render anything so beautiful."
How I feel whenever I see someone else's paint jobs.
Unlike you, whelp, I once walked the same ground as your idol. I breathed the same air as him. And I tell you this, without lie or artifice. He never wanted to become what you have made him! He did not wish to be your god-thing. He abhorred such ideals! The slavery of your crippled, blind Imperium would sicken him, if he had eyes to see it.
- Fabius Bile.
I murdered thousands for the Emperor and he gave me nothing except his damning silence. Now his lapdogs yap for every life I take, while the gods promise me the galaxy.
- Attributed to one 'Svane Vulfbad' supposedly a fallen Wolf Lord.
Huron Blackheart: Tyrant of Badab
Though my guards may sleep and my ships may lay at anchor, our foes know full well that the big guns never tire
Cardinal Khrysdam, Instructum Absolutio
A Heretic may see the truth and seek redemption. He may be forgiven his past and will be absolved in death. A Traitor can never be forgiven. A Traitor will never find peace in this world or the next. There is nothing as wretched or as hated in all the world as a Traitor.
"So fear not and be proud, for we are the sons of Sanguinius., the protectors of mankind. Aye, we are indeed the Angels of Death."-Commander Dante, Blood Angels Chapter Master.
"Into the fires of battle
Unto the anvil of war!"-Salamanders Chapter chant.
"Drive me closer! I want to hit them with my sword!"- Commissar Bern, upon loading him within a chimera.
"We have been wounded sorely. Yet still we stand, with fire in our eyes and valour in our hearts. Let them think us beaten. We shall teach them otherwise."
"Bring this tank about! If that thing is inside the Earthshaker cannon's firing arc, then we have no choice but to ram it. If the Emperor did not intend for you to fight his enemies in close quarters, He would not have seen fit to put bayonets on your lasguns. Now bring this Basilisk about and charge you pig fethers!"
"Priamus! Pick up your sword!"
Reclusiarch Grimaldus to the newly appointed Emperor's Champion, in the middle of battle, after the current Emperor's Champion dies.
"For the Emperor, for the Emperor," some dude before battle.
Andrej "Oh no not for Him. He is happy on His Golden Throne, a long way from here. This is for me and this is for you, and that is more than enough."
"We don't wear his symbol. We ARE his symbol." Chaplain Grimaldus of the Black Templars.
"Get out of my city." Chaplain Grimaldus of the Black Templars to a squad of Salamanders.
“Though the gates that stand between the mortal world and the immortal Realm of Chaos are now closed to me, still I would rather die having glimpsed eternity than never to have stirred the cold furrow of mortal life.
I embrace death without regret as I embraced life without fear.”
The Grumpy Eldar wrote: "We have been wounded sorely. Yet still we stand, with fire in our eyes and valour in our hearts. Let them think us beaten. We shall teach them otherwise."
Who?
Pedro Kantor.
Proteus: *Everything* has a purpose. The Emperor ordains it so. You may corrupt the souls of men. But I...
[strikes with the war hammer]
Proteus: Am *steel*!
[strikes again]
Proteus: I am *doom*!
[strikes again]
Proteus: I march for Macragge!
[shouts]
Proteus: AND I KNOW NO FEAR!
[kills the demon]
I forgot how epic the quotes in Cities of Death were-
“What is the terror of death? That we die our work incomplete. What is the joy of life? To die knowing our task is done.”
“My will be done.”
“Where there is uncertainty, I shall bring light. Where there is doubt, I shall sow faith. Where there is shame, I shall point atonement. Where there is rage, I shall show its course.”
“I am not asking for blood. I can take your blood. I am asking for souls. Only you can give me souls.”
“I tread the path of righteousness. Though it be paved with broken glass, I will walk it barefoot.”
