Dan Abnett Quotes

“And in the end. It's just a man killing his son with a stone...then the galaxy burns”
― Dan Abnett, The End and the Death: Volume III

“I'm not going to fight them, you fool. I'm going to kill them. - Malus Darkblade.”
― Dan Abnett, The Chronicles of Malus Darkblade Volume One

“Sometimes the threat is so grave, the worst of enemies must become the best of friends.”
― Dan Abnett, Penitent

“But he knows, and I know, and you know, that any defence is only as strong as its weakest part: faith, belief, trust.”
― Dan Abnett, The Lightning Tower

“Censorship is abhorrent to me,’ said Dorn. ‘It runs against the principles of the society we were meant to be building. Great Terra, I’m beginning to
sound as high-minded as Guilliman. My point, Kyril, my point is… we’re not building any more, and we had no idea how words could contaminate everything we hold dear. Remembrancers. Theists. Ideas that, in better times, we might at least have gently humoured. I stand opposed to all that woman Keeler represents, butI would defend her right to say it. In better times. But words and ideas have become dangerous, Sindermann. I don’t have to explain that to you, of all people.”
― Dan Abnett, Saturnine

“All is deceit. Nothing wears a true face or uses a true name. Nothing is as it appears to be, as if the whole universe were busily playing out a function, ‘guised in cunning. The mad are sane, the blind can see, the sane are otherwise demented, good is evil, and up, for all I care, is down.”
― Dan Abnett, Penitent

“Will you walk with me, Rogal Dorn?’
‘Are there not matters of state that require your attention, even at this hour, sir? The Council will bemoan your absence from the debating table!’
‘The Council can manage for a while without me,’ Malcador replied. ‘I like to take the air at this time of night. The Imperium never rests, but at night, up here in the thin air of the old Himalazia, I find there is at least an illusion of rest, a time to think and free the mind. I walk. I close my eyes. The stars do not go out because I am not looking at them.’
‘Not yet,’ said Dorn.
Malcador laughed. ‘No, not yet.”
― Dan Abnett, The Lightning Tower

“Heretics are the only ones worth trusting,’ the voice said, ‘for they have everything to gain and everything to lose.”
― Dan Abnett, Penitent

“I have used up my days believing I serve the Throne above all, but this is the filth I am dragged into.’
‘Me too,’ I said. ‘That’s something I might have said of my own life. Nothing wears an honest face. Those we admire disappoint us, or betray us. What truth may be found is uglier and more cruel than our worst expectations.”
― Dan Abnett, Penitent

“Thus are dreams dashed and good intentions lost. Everything returns to the dust, and everything is reduced to blind fighting in the shadowed ruins of cities against men who were brothers until madness claimed their minds.
Everything returns to the dirt, and the dirt becomes your camouflage, and hides your face and your cap badge in the dark, when death comes, growling, to find you out.”
― Dan Abnett, Sabbat Worlds: Of Their Lives in the Ruins of Their Cities

“He wonders if this place will mark the end of his life and soldiering career; a well-thought-of officer who wound up dying in some strategically worthless location because he didn’t make the right choices, or shake the right hand, or whisper in the right ear, or dine with the right cliques. He’s seen men make high rank that way, through the persuasive power of the officers’ club and the staff coterie. They were politicians, politicians who got to execute their decisions in the most literal way. Some were very capable, most were not.”
― Dan Abnett, Sabbat Worlds: Of Their Lives in the Ruins of Their Cities

“He thinks about trying again, and second chances. Sometimes there just isn’t the opportunity or the willingness to make things better. Sometimes you can’t simply have another go. You make a choice, and it’s a bad one, and you’re left with it. No amount of trying again will fix it. Don’t expect anyone to feel sorry for you, to cut you slack; you made a mistake you’ll have to live with.”
― Dan Abnett, Sabbat Worlds: Of Their Lives in the Ruins of Their Cities