Quotes from Dan Abnett

Nayl sighed and looked ahead at the turning starfields. The future lay ahead, its back to them, saying nothing.

It's plainly becoming quite an imperative. Survival, as I found out a long time ago, triggers the most basic, fundamental responses in an organic form. An individual, a species… It will do almost anything, evolve in almost any way it can, in order to stay alive. I called it the Existential Maturation Trigger.

Aleuton sat back and sighed. 'Eight days ago. They're getting hammered. Twenty-two engines, that's all Macaroth allowed us to keep here as a standing defence. The enemy has at least seven times that power.' He reached over and picked up a sheaf of black-edged papers. 'You see these? Death notices. Eight of them. Eight engines dead. What does that tell you?

We march for Macragge!' The seargent declares 'No, not today,' Ventanus replied. 'Today, we march for Calth.'

Oh fug!' Lon cried, suddenly, awfully audible.

I am a rat, and I am gnawing. I am a rat.

We're earlobe deep in doo-doo

It was a starship, and it was all that word implied. Off-dirt, the void, distant worlds whose names he couldn't spell.

Why do you do it?' asked Drusher. 'And don't say "because someone must" or anything like that.' 'Why are you a magos biologis, Drusher, when that calling has apparently given you a life you resent?' 'Because I'm good at it,' said Drusher. 'Yes', said Eisenhorn. 'It's sad, isn't it?

The voice was almost perfectly human. "Hello, Anthony." "Hello, Ultron," said Tony Stark.

It happens sometimes. A man is made chieftain and, soon all that is important to him is his status. He becomes deaf to any voice that doesn't try to soothe and cosset him. Before long, he only listens to those who tell him what he wants to hear.

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.

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.

I thought I had trained you well, Beta,' she said, 'but I see I must reinforce the most basic conditioning. Know yourself. Understand yourself. In this life, most answers lie within, or in plain view right in front of us. They can be seen with ease if you but take the time to look.

The exchange was as warm and friendly as a pair of automated range finders getting a mutual target lock.

Do you typically block your opponent's blade with your face, Hauclir?' Malus said by way of greeting. 'If the tactic's good enough for my lord and master it's good enough for me,' Hauclir deadpanned.

I am Alpharius

Over his back, he draws Mourn-It-All and Rubio's blade.

Climb a mountain of bodies under heavy fire to a dead end. Why would we do that, sir? Because the Emperor tells you to.

We are mighty because we are right, Garviel. We are not right because we are mighty. Vile the hour when that reversal becomes our credo.

Dorn shook out his shoulders, and raised his sword and shield. 'Try me,' he said. They rushed him.

I will miss the glory of this day,' said Sepatus sadly. Sanguinius placed a hand on his shoulder. 'Glory, Bel,' he said, 'awaits you wherever you walk.

Your timing could have been better,' he snapped. 'That thing nearly turned me into paste!' 'An unforgivable breach of duty, my lord,' Hauclir muttered darkly. 'Part of the wall fell on me and I selfishly tried to free myself instead of immediately seeing to your safety.

If you are the last man standing, you're not fighting hard enough.