Quotes that Struck you from the Heresy Series

[Viridia]

Honestly surprised no-one's mentioned it already;

"Kill for the living, kill for the dead!"

[m0nolith]

"If you truly do hail from the realm that men once called hell, when you return there, tell your kindred it was Sanguinius who threw you back."

- Sanguinius

[Skalpynock]

"Cold hearts and bitter souls have the Iron Warriors. To them war is the clacking of the tallyman's measure; all the blood spilled and the life spent, the high walls toppled and the foes cast down to them is all no more than coins added to death's coffers. The profit and loss of battle is their bread, the arithmetic of massacre is their wine, and with them it is an ashen feast they serve and yet find no pleasure in. There are many who look to the Emperor's Legions and see Mortarion's get as the ancient spectre of death come to flesh, the wiser few look upon the graveyards Perturabo's faceless sons made of worlds with such efficiency and may beg to differ."
Lord Militant Pietra Veitz Gustavus (Rt) Of War; A Private Memoir of the Great Crusade Vol III, Meditations on the Legiones Astartes

[Thedarkprincesnun]

"AVE dominus nox"

[Kriegsmacht]

"Death to the False Emperor"
 - Some no name young pup that did a few unremarkable things later on

 

...

 

 

:P

[Machine God]

"Because the Wolves kill cleanly, and we do not. They also kill quickly, and we have never done that, either. They fight, they win, and they stalk back to their ships with their tails held high. If they were ever ordered to destroy another Legion, they would do it by hurling warrior against warrior, seeking to grind their enemies down with the admirable delusions of the 'noble savage'. If we were ever ordered to assault another Legion, we would virus bomb their recruitment worlds; slaughter their serfs and slaves; poison their gene-seed repositories and spend the next dozen decades watching them die slow, humiliating deaths. Night after night, raid after raid, we'd overwhelm stragglers from their fleets and bleach their skulls to hang from our armour, until none remained. But that isn't the quick execution the Emperor needs, is it? The Wolves go for the throat. We go for the eyes. Then the tongue. Then the hands. Then the feet. Then we skin the crippled remains, and offer it up as an example to any still bearing witness. The Wolves were warriors before they became soldiers. We were murderers first,

last, and always!"

 

—Jago Sevatarion, speaking about his VIII^th Legion

[Vogon]

"Samus is coming"

One of the things that stands out for me in Horus Rising. It really represents the ignorance of the fighting forces. We as an informed observer understand what it represents but the marines going down into the caverns under Whisper Head mountains have no idea of the significance of what they are seeing after being taught that such things as Samus don't and in fact can't exist.

 

I think this was one of the turning points in the first book that sets Loken down his path.

 

also

 

"For the Emperor!" Yelled by Horus at the climax of Horus rising at the Hall of Devices when he reluctantly goes to war.

 

Quite a moment.

 

Cheers

 

Vogon

[Fire Golem]

I'd have to look through them to find actual quotes, but one of my favourite moments in the whole series is the bit in Scars with the Khan, Sanguinius, Fulgrim and Mortarion on Ullanor. Really shows how difficult the Khan finds the relationships with his brothers apart from Horus, and also shows some insight into Mortarion, ditto their duel later in the book. Really sticks with me. Plus I love his quip to Fulgrim; after he says he's heard the Khan does strange things to his ships; 'I hear you do strange things to your warriors'.

[Plasmablasts]

"Hello John." (Legion)

[Sigismund229]

Apologies for the threadmancy but:

 

"The Emperor's Children don't run"

 

"They do from this"

-Captain Ehrelen on the surface of Istvaan III

 

"Piss on Angron's grave when he finally dies"

-Sergeant Gharte Betrayer

[Dagoth Ur]

"I do not know." The Emperor in Master of Mankind (Paraphrased here). I was a bit lost throughout the novel but that closing sentence gave me the shivers. It really hammered home just how much was lost.

[Urriak Urruk]

"It's Heresy Time!"

- Effing Horus

[bluntblade]

"Is that... sweet soul of iron. That's blood. They're cooling it with blood."

Henricos in Scars - I just love "sweet soul of iron", and those kind of Legion-specific curses in general. "Blood of the Angel" springs to mind as well.

 

Also, the Khan's speech ahead of the battle with the daemons:

"They come, thirsty for more blood. But we have bled enough, and they will have no more... To the ends of time! We defy the dark!"

 

And of course, "What in the name of the Omnissiah will your chain sword do against that?"

[m_r_parker]

For me, there's one quote that sticks out for what is unsaid rather than what was said. It's from The First Heretic, and is a very brief exchange between Argel Tal and Lorgar. Argel Tal and the last remnants of the Serrated Sun have returned from the Eye, transformed into the first of the Gal Vorbak, and Lorgar is about to follow suit. The final exchange between the Primarch of the Word Bearers and the Captain of the newly formed Gal Vorbak goes, as witnessed by Cyrene

 

 

His last words to Argel Tal will never leave me - not only for the events they set in motion, but for what they did to my friend, and how they changed him.

"Take the truth to Erebus and For Phaeron. While I am gone, they will be the Legion's lords, and they will orchestrate the spread of true faith in the shadows of my father's empire. I shall return to them soon"

Xaphen swore an oath never to fail his primarch.

Argel Tal did not. He spoke in a voice soft enough to break hearts, "We are heretics, father."

 

That response back from Argel Tal is one of the most tragic statements in the whole of the Heresy. He knows what will await Lorgar when he goes into the Eye, he wrestles with the knowledge that he is sharing his body with a daemon that is tainting him, and he knows that what they are doing will be consider heresy by the Emperor and the rest of the Imperium - and that despite what he's seen within the Eye, that the judgement placed on the Word Bearers by the Imperium would be right. This is the literal last chance to stop this from going any further, to prevent what will bring about the downfall of his Legion, and the Imperium, but it falls on deaf ears. Lorgar could have turned away, returned back to Imperial space and continue with the Great Crusade and not think about this for a moment longer, but the curiosity is too much, as is the desire to be proven right in his search for a higher purpose and power. Instead Lorgar asks that this is spread throughout the Legion (and beyond), and duty-bound as Argel Tal is he obeys knowing the deeper impact of it. 

 

To some that may be a throw-away line, and there are many more iconic lines throughout the series that better resonate with readers, but this is one of the very few pieces in the novel series that always makes me stop reading and truly think about how Argel Tal is feeling, and what he is asked to do despite what he has been through. There are very few pieces that do that to me, and this is one of them.

[Marshal Loss]

Too many to list, but my favourite of recent memory is this. Simple but awesome:

 

 

'Every one of them we kill here strips Terra of another defender,’ replied Eidolon, sensing the build-up of aetheric power in the chamber. Snarls of cold lightning flickered up the columns around him, distorting real space. ‘And besides, you omit the crucial point.’

The air shivered, tensing for the explosion that would turn reality inside out and thrust a living spear of the warp into the realm of the senses. Eidolon hefted his thunder hammer, anticipating the temporary release of translation – the fleeting respite from the living agony of his existence.
‘Which is?’ Von Kalda asked, his voice growing faint as the teleport charge built to the apex.
Eidolon smiled. ‘That we live for this.’
Then the chamber filled with light, the sensations snuffed out, and the Kakophoni were sent across worlds and minds and into the howling heart of battle.

 

Favourite of all time probably goes to Angron's speech when he fights Guilliman in Betrayer though. You know nothing of courage, you know nothing of honour!

[Calas Typhon]

“Because we couldn’t be trusted. The Emperor needed a weapon that would never obey its own desires before those of the Imperium. He needed a weapon that would never bite the hand that feeds. The World Eaters were not that weapon. We’ve all drawn blades purely for the sake of shedding blood, and we’ve all felt the exultation of winning a war that never even needed to happen. We are not the tame, reliable pets that the Emperor wanted. The Wolves obey, when we would not. The Wolves can be trusted, when we never could. They have a discipline we lack, because their passions are not aflame with the Butcher’s Nails buzzing in the back of their skulls. The Wolves will always come to heel when called. In that regard, it is a mystery why they name themselves wolves. They are tame, collared by the Emperor, obeying his every whim. But a wolf doesn’t behave that way. Only a dog does. That is why we are the Eaters of Worlds, and the War Hounds no longer." 

 

This has easily become my favourite speech of sorts in any Heresy book, when listening to the Betrayer Audiobook, it is always absolutely fantastic.

[Interrogator-Chaplain Ezra]

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

 

- Ostian Delafour, Fulgrim

 

Totally used that in an essay, AP referenced, cited and everything.

Did you source the quote properly, or did you just cite it to the novel?

 

Anyways, on topic, my own favourite:

 

"Our turn."

[No Foes Remain]

 

"The measure of true glory is not to give battle in the bright noon of war, surrounded by brave comrades upon the field of victory, but to valiantly fight on alone in darkness, with no hope of aid or remembrance, and to spit defiance in midnight's eye." - Lion El'Jonson.

 

From HH book 6: Retribution. Saw it while re-reading the series in preperation for Inferno and just loved the quote so damn bad.

[Skalpynock]

 

 

  Civilisation and progress is neither a natural state nor a guarantee of the passage of time, the mere fact of the Age of Strife and all its horrors are enough proof of this.

The sole purpose of the Great Crusade then is the furtherance of peace through war, the creation of plenty through restriction and the establish of freedom through tyranny.

From the Principia Lex Imperialis

 

Inferno gave us this tidbit about the Imperium being perfectly aware of its state as a tyranny. No wonder Angron and Mortarion bailed out.

[Athrawes]

 

'In raising these men to watch over mankind, we have bred a legion of inhumans whose sole purpose is to defend that which they no longer understand. Their duty, borne with pride; their curse, carried with grace - but let it never be forgotten what we have done to Caliban's finest sons. 

 

Unending Imperial ambition has not bred warriors with the warm hearts of men, but angels with the cold hearts of weapons.'

 

No soul so changed will recover what was lost. No weapon so savage can be wielded without cost.'

 

-The Verbatim, Lutherian Amendments, 

Chapter 1: These Savage Weapons

 

By far my favorite quote, courtesy of AD-B

[bluntblade]

How could I forget:

"Tell (the Astropaths) that if they cannot interpret properly then I shall come up to their spires and hammer their dreams into shape for them!"

 

And another Argel Tal one:

"I never pretended to be anything but weak, Khârn... Humanity's weakest souls always cling to the words 'I was just following orders.' They cower behind those words, making a virtue of their own weakness, lionising brutality over nobility. I know that when I die, I'll have lived my whole life shrouded by that same excuse."

[NoLifeKing]

"I am Cerberus, the gatekeeper of hell, I am justice!" - Garviel Loken(Legion of one)

[StaffyManasse]

I've been reading Fear to Tread, and this part in the prologue really stuck a chord and it's been looping in my head for days now.

 

'Rest, brother,' he told the fallen warrior. 'You are in the company of death. I hope you find peace there.'

[Interrogator-Chaplain Ezra]

"The Fists have the derelict section locked down tighter than Dorn's arse cheeks." -Destroyer sergeant Grull Gorphon, Distant Echoes Of Old Night

[Laughingman]

"But, captain, I was wrong when I told you that the Schadenhold would never fall. Idriss, it will fall..."

  Warsmith Dantioch from The Iron Within before trolling Idriss krendl by dropping the schardenhold on top of him.