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“Reason is the first victim of strong emotion," Scytale murmured.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

“Each leaf that brushed his face deepened his sadness and dread. Each leaf he passed he'd never pass again. They rode over his face like veils, already some yellow, their veins like slender bones where the sun shone through them. He had resolved himself to ride on for he could not turn back and the world that day was as lovely as any day that ever was and he was riding to his death.”
― Cormac McCarthy, Child of God

“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

“Keeda had survived the death of her Titan, murdered by a Lysander Reaver in black and white that killed them without looking twice. She survived the wracking pain of severance from the Syrgalah's great-hearted machine spirit - a soul she adored and would willingly died to defend. She'd pulled her mutilated colleague free from imminent death and bidden her dead mentor farewell. She'd even fired hopelessly a soldier sworn to kill her, who she knew she could never have harmed.

But she only started screaming when a demon embraced and said he'd come to save her life.”
― Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Betrayer

“The realities of pitched warfare rarely made it into the sagas. In all the stories he’d heard, especially those woeful diatribes from the remembrancers, battle was reduced to a handful of heroes going blade-to-blade in the sunlight, while their nameless lessers looked on in stupefied awe.
It took a great deal to make Khârn cringe, but war poetry never failed.”
― Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Betrayer

“Argel Tal often said that Fate had a vicious sense of humour. Khârn never doubted it for a second.”
― Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Betrayer

“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

“Mankind has proven to be pathologically incapable of learning from its own mistakes. It blithely remembers the witness of history, but it does not apply the knowledge it gains.”
― Dan Abnett, Saturnine

“War was a scream in capital letters. It was a noise. It wasn’t even words. It had no syntax, no adjectives, no subtext, no context. It communicated itself as suddenly, simply and unequivocally as a punch in the face. It was a thing, not a story.”
― Dan Abnett, Saturnine

“I was there, the day that Horus killed the Emperor”
― Dan Abnett, Horus Rising

“I know that words cannot move mountains, but they can move the multitude - we've proven that time and time again. People are more ready to fight and die for a word than for anything else. Words shape thought, stir feeling, and force action. They kill and revive, corrupt and cure.”
― Dan Abnett, Horus Rising

“The difference between gods and daemons largely depends upon where one is standing at the time.”
― Dan Abnett, Horus Rising

“Order the guns to fire,’ said Horus, his voice cold. ‘Let the galaxy burn!”
― Ben Counter, Galaxy in Flames

“You fuss too much over making the "right" choice Gaius. All we need do is make a good choice, see it through, and accept the consequences.”
― Graham McNeill, Fulgrim

“Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably. And Rhaegar died.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

“Old stories are like old friends, she used to say. You have to visit them from time to time.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

“You're mine," she whispered. "Mine, as I'm yours. And if we die, we die. All men must die, Jon Snow. But first, we'll live.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

“I've lost a hand, a father, a son, a sister, and a lover, and soon enough I will lose a brother. And yet they keep telling me House Lannister won this war.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

“It all goes back and back," Tyrion thought, "to our mothers and fathers and theirs before them. We are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us, and one day our own children will take up our strings and dance in our steads.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

“All these kings would do a deal better if they would put down their swords and listen to their mothers.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

“There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

“Noseless and Handless, the Lannister Boys.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

“And any man who must say 'I am king' is no true king at all.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

“Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual.

-Words of Muad'dib by Princess Irulan.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

“Here lies a toppled god.
His fall was not a small one.
We did but build his pedestal,
A narrow and a tall one.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

“We have eternity, beloved."
"You may have eternity. I have only now."
"But this is eternity.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

“I live in an apocalyptic dream. My steps fit into it so precisely that I fear most of all I will grow bored reliving the thing so exactly.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

“You do not beg the sun for mercy.

-Maud'dib's Travail from The Stilgar Commentary”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

“Some lies are easier to believe than the truth.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

“The wise man molds himself—the fool lives only to die.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah