Quotes from Dan Abnett

I believe the young man's efforts are worthwhile. I see now why the Lord Praetorian initiated the programme, and warranted the return of the remembrancer order. It has value, though I am not sure this is quite how Rogal imagined it. The act of recording history produces a sense of a future. It is, perhaps, the most optimistic thing anyone can do. We will always need to know where we have come from. We will always need to know that we are going somewhere.

I dislike secrecy intensely... It is deceit, and it deserves no place among the honest and honourable doctrines of Fair War. Secrets are volatile and unstable. They are never stored safely. When they emerge, the mere fact of them can damage the friends and brothers around us.' - Primarch Dorn

Time seemed to slow down and stretch out, like a quiet, slow passage in a piece of music. It occurred to me then that I could never be a soldier. The waiting would kill me. It's ironic, I know. I can spend months on a work, whole weeks minutely carving some tiny part of it. I am obsessive with detail, and never care how long it takes to get something perfect, because the success of the whole might depend on one small part.

Ha ha ha! One shot? You say that like there's sometimes more than one shot. Do you ever go into a fight thinking "there's no point giving my best, I'll get another chance later"? We only ever get one shot, Marlin. Life is one shot. Making it count is all that matters.

The distinction between trade and warfare is seen only by those who have no experience of either.

We must find our friends where we can, and make those bonds count.

Only a fool ignores the advice of a brilliant man. Oy an idiot denies the good practice of an enemy.

He collapsed, all his efforts spent.

Never argue with a gun-cutter, [...]

The truth we convey is the truth, because we say it is the truth. Is that enough?

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.

They liked black ironwork here on Pyrites. They made everything out of it. Even the beer, judging by the taste.

An eye can look out and it can look in. You should know that, you who look deeper than most.

But the ritual can be good too. It focuses the mind on the act of belief. Devotion through deed is fair enough, but most of the time all you're thinking about is the deed itself, not the devotion. Making time to go to the temple reminds you it's just about the divine. About you and your relationship to the power above us all.

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.

The spatter of raindrops made me look down at the floor. It was mosaic, a huge mosaic, made up of trillions of tiled fragments. I had heard that only if you climbed up the dome to the very top, and peered in through the skylights at the summit, could you perceive the mosaic image in full and understand what it depicted. This felt, to me, like an adequate metaphor for my life.

To say that the two assassins were dead was as much of an understatement as saying that a supernova is the end of a star's life. It conveyed nothing of the catastrophic violence involved.

She is," said Lara. "But I'm not a doctor." "You're not much of an archaeologist either, young lady," said Professor Cahalane.

the martial art of the long-vanished Tanith wood-warriors, the Nalsheen. In the old days, it was said, the Nalsheen had banded together in the oblique forests of Tanith and, armed only with fighting staves tipped with silver knives, had overthrown the corrupt Huhlhwch Dynasty, ushering in the age of modern, free Tanith.

I am sorry, Chapter Master,' said Attias, chastened. 'I meant no offence.' 'You caused none,' said Hadariel. 'You simply asked a question, and there is no harm in that. If ever a time comes when the Dark Angels see reason to avoid questions, we will have lost our souls.

The levelling glories of field artillery,' he said, 'beneath which all things are rendered equal.

Ma and Pa stood over Jake as he sat on the ground, catching his breath and still holding Emmie's rag doll.

Death does not discriminate. It is so even handed, so scrupulously fair, that it seems not fair at all. - Eeron Kleve, Iron Hand's Captain

The Malus Codicum. It was an infernal book, thrice damned. I knew of no other copy in existence. One half of the Inquisition would kill me to get their hands on it, the other half would burn me for having it in my possession.