Descriptor Quotes a la 1d4chan

[Ryltar Thamior]

One of the best things about 1d4chan's writeups of various 40k characters, factions, and concepts, are the quotes that're used as headers in many articles. These aren't just 40k-sourced ones, but come from quite a bewildering array of modern and classic literature, songs, pop-cultural manifestations, real-world religious scripture, other games, etc. 

Not all pages have them, and not all are equally good. But in many cases, they really help to capture and portray the *essence* of a thing. And provide amply abundant inspiration for both modelling projects, and fluff exercises. 

But I'm not here simply to compliment whichever anonymous fa/tg/uys were responsible for either concept or quote selection. 

Rather ... the only issue I have with the way they do things, is that there's *only* two or three quotes per page. 

So, with that in mind, I thought I'd fire up a thread to encourage people to chuck in their own examples of quotes from pretty much any source, that might be useful in attempting to sum up something or someone from 40k. 

Here's a few examples from 1d4chan itself:

> On the page for plasma weaponry: "Never was anything great achieved without danger." - Niccolo Machiavelli 
> From the Ferrus Manus entry : "Steel isn't strong, boy. Flesh is stronger. What is steel compared to the hand that wields it?" - Thulsa Doom to Conan, Conan the Barbarian. 
> From the Leman Russ page, and a personal favourite: "I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you." - Genghis Khan. 
> From the Iron Warriors page: "Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured." - Mark Twain
> From the Word Bearers page: "By its very nature, theology tends - and under certain conditions, must always tend - to become demonology." - from Faust [appropriately enough]
> Alpharius: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." - Kurt Vonnegut 
> the Alpha Legion : "If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself." - George Orwell 
> Dark Angels: "The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn't one." - Margaret Atwood
> From the Lorgar page: "From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step." – Denis Diderot
> Lorgar again: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;" / "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored." / "He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword" / "His truth is marching on" - The Battle Hymn of the Republic
> Lorgar, for a third time: "Dost thou (kimi) seest not this man of Enlightenment (Satori)" / "Who hath ceased studying and liveth now effortlessly?" / "Neither doth he seeks to defeat dellusion nor to find truth any longer." – The Song of Sudden Enlightenment, by Grand Master Yoka, disciple of Hui Neng, 6th Patriarch of Zen
> on The Imperial Truth: "If once we can produce our perfect work — the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshipping, what he vaguely calls “Forces” while denying the existence of “spirits” — then the end of the war will be in sight."– Screwtape, "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S Lewis

Getting the picture? If you've got some cool thoughts about quotes, from pretty much any source, post 'em here along with what you're thinking they're affixable to within the 40k/30k context. 

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with 1d4chan, except as an occasional reader. I just like what they've done with the concept, and think that it can be broadened out. 

 

[Ryltar Thamior]

To get the ball rolling ...

Raven Guard:
"But as you pass, I hear the fowlers say,
To shoot at Crows is powder flung away."
- John Gay, Epistle IV. 

Alpha Legion; or XIXth Legion ... or, for that matter, Night Lords; and Dark Eldar; 
"As for the Harii, quite apart from their strength, which exceeds that of the other tribes I have just listed, they pander to their innate savagery by skill and timing: with black shields and painted bodies, they choose dark nights to fight, and by means of terror and shadow of a ghostly army they cause panic, since no enemy can bear a sight so unexpected and hellish; in every battle the eyes are the first to be conquered."
- Tacitus,  Germania 

White Scars, or Alpha Legion, or Raven Guard; also, (Dark) Eldar
"But the Scythian race has in that matter which of all human affairs is of greatest import made the cleverest discovery that we know; I praise not the Scythians in all respects, but in this greatest matter they have so devised that none who attacks them can escape, and none can catch them if they desire not to be found. For when men have no stablished cities or fortresses, but all are house-bearers and mounted archers, living not by tilling the soil but by cattle-rearing and carrying their dwellings on waggons, how should these not be invincible and unapproachable?" - Herodotus, The Persian Wars (Godley Translation) 

White Scars, or Alpha Legion, or Raven Guard ... could also work for (Dark) Eldar

"To this message Idanthyrsus, the Scythian king, replied:- "This is

my way, Persian. I never fear men or fly from them. I have not done

so in times past, nor do I now fly from thee. There is nothing new

or strange in what I do; I only follow my common mode of life in peaceful

years. Now I will tell thee why I do not at once join battle with

thee. We Scythians have neither towns nor cultivated lands, which

might induce us, through fear of their being taken or ravaged, to

be in any hurry to fight with you. If, however, you must needs come

to blows with us speedily, look you now, there are our fathers' tombs-

seek them out, and attempt to meddle with them- then ye shall see

whether or no we will fight with you. Till ye do this, be sure we

shall not join battle, unless it pleases us. This is my answer to

the challenge to fight. As for lords, I acknowledge only Jove my ancestor,

and Vesta, the Scythian queen. Earth and water, the tribute thou askedst,

I do not send, but thou shalt soon receive more suitable gifts. Last

of all, in return for thy calling thyself my lord, I say to thee,

'Go weep.'" (This is what men mean by the Scythian mode of speech.)"
- Herodotus, The Persian Wars 

I'm *attempting* to track down a proper source for a quote that's given on Wikipedia, from the same campaign:
"We are free as wind and what you can catch in our land is only the wind"

Will post more from other sources as I happen across them. 
 

[Ryltar Thamior]

This will suit both Inquisition agents, as well as, more generally, the Imperial Guard:
 

"You are the new recruit? All right, you are engaged." 

"I really have no experience..." 

"No one has any experience of the battle of Armageddon." 

"But I'm really unfit..." 

"You are willing, that is enough." 

"Now, really, I know of no occupation for which mere willingness is the final test." 

"I do. Martyrs. I am sending you to your death. Good day."
- G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

Inquisition again:

"But why did you join the police?" asked Syme with rude curiosity.

"For much the same reason that you abused the police," replied the other. "I found that there was a special opening in the service for those whose fears for humanity were concerned rather with the aberrations of the scientific intellect than with the normal and excusable, though excessive, outbreaks of the human will. I trust I make myself clear."
[...]

 "This is the situation: The head of one of our departments, one of the most celebrated detectives in Europe, has long been of opinion that a purely intellectual conspiracy would soon threaten the very existence of civilisation. He is certain that the scientific and artistic worlds are silently bound in a crusade against the Family and the State. He has, therefore, formed a special corps of policemen, policemen who are also philosophers. It is their business to watch the beginnings of this conspiracy, not merely in a criminal but in a controversial sense. I am a democrat myself, and I am fully aware of the value of the ordinary man in matters of ordinary valour or virtue. But it would obviously be undesirable to employ the common policeman in an investigation which is also a heresy hunt."

[...] "What do you do, then?" he said.

"The work of the philosophical policeman," replied the man in blue, "is at once bolder and more subtle than that of the ordinary detective. The ordinary detective goes to pot-houses to arrest thieves; we go to artistic tea-parties to detect pessimists. The ordinary detective discovers from a ledger or a diary that a crime has been committed. We discover from a book of sonnets that a crime will be committed. We have to trace the origin of those dreadful thoughts that drive men on at last to intellectual fanaticism and intellectual crime."
- G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

You could certainly imagine an Inquisitor coming out with this: 

"The common criminal is a bad man, but at least he is, as it were, a conditional good man. He says that if only a certain obstacle be removed—say a wealthy uncle—he is then prepared to accept the universe and to praise God. He is a reformer, but not an anarchist. He wishes to cleanse the edifice, but not to destroy it. But the evil philosopher is not trying to alter things, but to annihilate them. Yes, the modern world has retained all those parts of police work which are really oppressive and ignominious, the harrying of the poor, the spying upon the unfortunate. It has given up its more dignified work, the punishment of powerful traitors in the State and powerful heresiarchs in the Church. The moderns say we must not punish heretics. My only doubt is whether we have a right to punish anybody else."

"But this is absurd!" cried the policeman, clasping his hands with an excitement uncommon in persons of his figure and costume, "but it is intolerable! I don't know what you're doing, but you're wasting your life. You must, you shall, join our special army against anarchy. Their armies are on our frontiers. Their bolt is ready to fall. A moment more, and you may lose the glory of working with us, perhaps the glory of dying with the last heroes of the world."
- G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

And, further, an admirable description for Chaos or Genestealer cults:

"Naturally, therefore, these people talk about 'a happy time coming;' 'the paradise of the future;' 'mankind freed from the bondage of vice and the bondage of virtue,' and so on. And so also the men of the inner circle speak—the sacred priesthood. They also speak to applauding crowds of the happiness of the future, and of mankind freed at last. But in their mouths"—and the policeman lowered his voice—"in their mouths these happy phrases have a horrible meaning. They are under no illusions; they are too intellectual to think that man upon this earth can ever be quite free of original sin and the struggle. And they mean death. When they say that mankind shall be free at last, they mean that mankind shall commit suicide. When they talk of a paradise without right or wrong, they mean the grave.

They have but two objects, to destroy first humanity and then themselves. That is why they throw bombs instead of firing pistols. The innocent rank and file are disappointed because the bomb has not killed the king; but the high-priesthood are happy because it has killed somebody."

- G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday
 

How it feels to witness Alpha Legion shenanigans:

"Was anyone wearing a mask? Was anyone anything? This wood of witchery, in which men's faces turned black and white by turns, in which their figures first swelled into sunlight and then faded into formless night, this mere chaos of chiaroscuro (after the clear daylight outside), seemed to Syme a perfect symbol of the world in which he had been moving for three days, this world where men took off their beards and their spectacles and their noses, and turned into other people. That tragic self-confidence which he had felt when he believed that the Marquis was a devil had strangely disappeared now that he knew that the Marquis was a friend. He felt almost inclined to ask after all these bewilderments what was a friend and what an enemy. Was there anything that was apart from what it seemed? The Marquis had taken off his nose and turned out to be a detective. Might he not just as well take off his head and turn out to be a hobgoblin? Was not everything, after all, like this bewildering woodland, this dance of dark and light? Everything only a glimpse, the glimpse always unforeseen, and always forgotten. For Gabriel Syme had found in the heart of that sun-splashed wood what many modern painters had found there. He had found the thing which the modern people call Impressionism, which is another name for that final scepticism which can find no floor to the universe."
- G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

"But put it this way. Walking up a road at night, I have seen a lamp and a lighted window and a cloud make together a most complete and unmistakable face. If anyone in heaven has that face I shall know him again. Yet when I walked a little farther I found that there was no face, that the window was ten yards away, the lamp ten hundred yards, the cloud beyond the world. Well, Sunday's face escaped me; it ran away to right and left, as such chance pictures run away. And so his face has made me, somehow, doubt whether there are any faces. I don't know whether your face, Bull, is a face or a combination in perspective. Perhaps one black disc of your beastly glasses is quite close and another fifty miles away. Oh, the doubts of a materialist are not worth a dump. Sunday has taught me the last and the worst doubts, the doubts of a spiritualist. I am a Buddhist, I suppose; and Buddhism is not a creed, it is a doubt. My poor dear Bull, I do not believe that you really have a face. I have not faith enough to believe in matter."
When I see the horrible back, I am sure the noble face is but a mask. When I see the face but for an instant, I know the back is only a jest. Bad is so bad, that we cannot but think good an accident; good is so good, that we feel certain that evil could be explained."
- G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

Angron: 

"I only saw his ack; and when I saw his back, I knew he was the worst man in the world. His neck and shoulders were brutal, like those of some apish god. His head had a stoop that was hardly human, like the stoop of an ox. In fact, I had at once the revolting fancy that this was not a man at all, but a beast dressed up in men's clothes."
- G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

Although in concert with what comes next, could be a number of Primarchs:

"and coming round the other side of him, saw his face in the sunlight. His face frightened me, as it did everyone; but not because it was brutal, not because it was evil. On the contrary, it frightened me because it was so beautiful, because it was so good." [...]
"It was like the face of some ancient archangel, judging justly after heroic wars. There was laughter in the eyes, and in the mouth honour and sorrow. There was the same white hair, the same great, grey-clad shoulders that I had seen from behind. But when I saw him from behind I was certain he was an animal, and when I saw him in front I knew he was a god."
- G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

 

 

[Toxichobbit]

Alpha Legion: "I'm a dude, playing a dude, disguised as another dude." Kirk Lazarus.

[Sandlemad]

Wonderful idea!

 

It's one of the handful of things I like about 1d4chan and also emulates particularly well the habit of FW books sticking a pithy quote weighty with dramatic irony in the margins, attributed to 'Shakespire' or 'Skopenhauer' or whoever. The BL books do it too, still impressed by Abnett's perfect use of that bit of Troius & Cressida - "Strength should be lord of imbecility,/And the rude son should strike his father dead:" - in Prospero Burns. Gives it a depth of cultural reference beyond, well, greek mythology and such.

 

I should also note that doing this for the Alpha Legion with The Man Who Was Thursday is almost too perfect. But let's see...

 

Argel Tal:

"“God will save you." "Surely you're forgetting that God saves souls rather than bodies.”"

- José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

 

Ahriman/Inquisitor Czevak/probably a few others:

“But preserve your mistrust of the page, for a book is a fortress, a place of weeping, the key to a desert, a river that has no bridge, a garden of spears.”

- Sofia Samatar, A Stranger in Olondria

 

Rogal Dorn

“Once you have built something - something that takes all your passion and will - it becomes more precious to you than your own happiness. You don't realise that, while you are building it. That you are creating a martyrdom - something which, later, will make you suffer.”

- Sofia Samatar, A Stranger in Olondria

 

Horus/Alpharius/the Emperor?:

“But it is no use to justify yourself. It is no good to explain. It is weak to be anecdotal. It is wise to conceal the past even if there is nothing to conceal. A man's power is in the half-light, in the half-seen movements of his hand and the unguessed-at expression of his face. It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.”

- Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

 

Roboute Guiliman

“This then, I thought, as I looked round about me, is the representation of history. It requires a falsification of perspective. We, the survivors, see everything from above, see everything at once, and still we do not know how it was.” 

― W.G. Sebald, The Rings of Saturn

 

Magnus (and how did it work out for him...?)

“The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only by such taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate.” 

― Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian

 

Horus ( )

“No one is so senseless as to choose of his own will war rather than peace, since in peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons.” 

Herodotus, The Histories

[Iron Father Ferrum]

On the Hunt for the Fallen, Proverbs 28:1. "The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as lions."

 

 

On Space Marines in general, from the Duke of Wellington: "I do not know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but, by God, they terrify me."

 

 

On the Imperial Guard/Administratum, from Josef Stalin: "One death is a tragedy. A million is a statistic."

[Sete]

Black Templars:

 

"They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you. You will be worse. Rip and Tear, until it is done."

 

– Intro to Doom 2016

 

LOL https://youtu.be/WyAEBux88hw

The theme song!

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

“Listen, I'm a politician which means I'm a cheat and a liar, and when I'm not kissing babies I'm stealing their lollipops. But it also means I keep my options open.”

Jeffery Pelt, The Hunt for Red October (Film)

The inquisition, specifically it’s more radical elements.

[Ryltar Thamior]

Iron Warriors:

"Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones can not bear it for long; only men endure." 
- personal diary of Leutnant Weiner, 24th Panzer Division, Stalingrad. 

The full quote is also ... pretty darkly 40kspirational:
 

"We have fought during 15 days for a single house with mortars, grenades, machine guns, and  bayonets. Already by the third day 54 German corpses are strewn in the cellars, on the landings, and the staircases. The front is a corridor between burnt-out rooms; it is the thin ceiling between two floors. Help comes from neighboring houses by fire escapes and chimneys. There is a ceaseless struggle from noon to night. From story to story, faces black with sweat, we bombard each other with grenades in the middle of explosions, clouds of dust and smoke, heaps of mortar, floods of blood, fragments of furniture and human beings. Ask any soldier what half an hour of hand-to-hand struggle means in such a fight. And imagine Stalingrad; 80 days and 80 nights of hand-to-hand struggles. The street is no longer measured by meters but by corpses... Stalingrad is no longer a town. By day it is an enormous cloud of burning, blinding smoke; it is a vast furnace lit by the reflection of the flames. And when night arrives, one of those scorching, howling, bleeding nights, the dogs plunge into the Volga and swim desperately to gain the other bank. The nights of Stalingrad are a terror for them. Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones can not bear it for long; only men endure."

Iron Warriors again:

"Some die shouting in gas or fire;

   Some die silent, by shell and shot.

Some die desperate, caught on the wire;

   Some die suddenly. This will not. [...]

 Some die easily. This dies hard."

- Rudyard Kipling, A Death-Bed 

Iron Warriors, for a third time: 

"So he made rebellion 'gainst the King his liege,

Camped before his citadel and summoned it to siege.

"Nay!" said the cannoneer on the castle wall,

"But Iron -- Cold Iron -- shall be master of you all!"

 

Woe for the Baron and his knights so strong,

When the cruel cannon-balls laid 'em all along;

He was taken prisoner, he was cast in thrall,

And Iron -- Cold Iron -- was master of it all!
[...]

"Tears are for the craven, prayers are for the clown --

Halters for the silly neck that cannot keep a crown."

"As my loss is grievous, so my hope is small,

For Iron -- Cold Iron -- must be master of men all!"
[...]

"Wounds are for the desperate, blows are for the strong.

Balm and oil for weary hearts all cut and bruised with wrong.

I forgive thy treason -- I redeem thy fall --

For Iron -- Cold Iron -- must be master of men all!"

 

"Crowns are for the valiant -- sceptres for the bold!

Thrones and powers for mighty men who dare to take and hold!"

"Nay!" said the Baron, kneeling in his hall,

"But Iron -- Cold Iron -- is master of men all!"
- Rudyard Kipling, Cold Iron. 

 

 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Alpha Legion: 
 

"Method is more important than strength, when you wish to control your enemies. By dropping golden beads near a snake, a crow once managed To have a passer-by kill the snake for the beads."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Alpha Legion again:

“I saw a crow building a nest, I was watching him very carefully, I was kind of stalking him and he was aware of it. And you know what they do when they become aware of someone stalking them when they build a nest, which is a very vulnerable place to be? They build a decoy nest. It’s just for you.” 
- Tom Waits

[Sandlemad]

The Inquisition
"Fire and fear, good servants, bad lords."
― Ursula LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness

Tyranids
Because if Sarasti was right, scramblers were the norm: evolution across the universe was nothing but the endless proliferation of automatic, organized complexity, a vast arid Turing machine full of self-replicating machinery forever unaware of its own existence. And we--we were the flukes and the fossils. We were the flightless birds lauding our own mastery over some remote island while serpents and carnivores washed up on our shores.
- Peter Watts, Blindsight

The Warp
An oracle was questioned about the mysterious bond between two objects so dissimilar as the carpet and the city. One of the two objects – the oracle replied – has the form the gods gave the starry sky and the orbits in which the worlds revolve; the other is an approximate reflection, like every human creation. For some time the augurs had been sure that the carpet’s harmonious pattern was of divine origin. The oracle was interpreted in this sense, arousing no controversy. But you could, similarly, come to the opposite conclusion: that the true map of the universe is the city of Eudoxia, just as it is, a stain that spreads out shapelessly, with crooked streets, houses that crumble one upon the other amid clouds of dust, fires, screams in the darkness.
- Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

The Primarchs
Humanity lived many years and ruled the earth, sometimes wisely, sometimes well, but mostly neither. After all this time on the throne, humanity longed for a child. All day long humanity imagined how wonderful its child would be, how loving and kind, how like and unlike humanity itself, how brilliant and beautiful. And yet at night, humanity trembled in its jeweled robes, for its child might also grow stronger than itself, more powerful, and having been made by humanity, possess the same dark places and black matters. Perhaps its child would hurt it, would not love it as a child should, but harm and hinder, hate and fear. But the dawn would come again, and humanity would bend its heart again to imagining the wonders that a child would bring.
- Catherynne Valente, The Bread We Eat in Dreams

The Imperium
“An inordinate love of ritual can be harmful to the soul, unless, of course, in times of great crisis, when ritual can protect the soul from fracture.”
- Jeff Vandermeer, City of Saints and Madmen

[Skalpynock]

A fan of these as well

 

Horus Lupercal

 

Doth fate decree

That I must fall,

Of rank and honors shorn,

Then let me fall;

But fall with this

My crown upon my brow,

This sceptre in my grasp,

With my own retinue

Of faithful troops,

And with these many thousands on my side.

Aye, thus to fall brings honor

And shall shed

Unfading glory on my name

 

–Joost Van De Vondel, Lucifer

[MegaVolt87]

HH writers just low key reading this thread looking for IRL quotes to add to HH book/ chapter intro's lol. 

[Marshal Rohr]

HH writers just low key reading this thread looking for IRL quotes to add to HH book/ chapter intro's lol.

Severely doubt the writers are impressed by self-congratulatory references to the poet every person with dangly bits loves the most.

[Ryltar Thamior]

Blackshields:

"Ber er hver að baki nema sér bróður eigi."
"Bare is the back of the brotherless man"
- Njal's Saga 


 

[Stofficus]

The Imperial Guard (more specifically, DKoK)

"My right is under heavy attack, the center can not hold, I can not maneuver. Situation excellent, I am attacking." - Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Battle of the Marne, 1914

 

"When struck by an ambush, response with maximum speed, force and aggression directly into the enemy. The use of fully automatic weapons and bayonets is recommended." - Canadian army doctrine manual, 2011 (Yes, there are armies out there that even today value a good bayonet charge, take that people who question the validity of Imperial Guard tactics!)

[Ryltar Thamior]

The Imperial Guard (more specifically, DKoK)

 

"My right is under heavy attack, the center can not hold, I can not maneuver. Situation excellent, I am attacking." - Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Battle of the Marne, 1914

 

"When struck by an ambush, response with maximum speed, force and aggression directly into the enemy. The use of fully automatic weapons and bayonets is recommended." - Canadian army doctrine manual, 2011 (Yes, there are armies out there that even today value a good bayonet charge, take that people who question the validity of Imperial Guard tactics!)

I've always been rather enamoured of that Foch quote :D 

 

Interestingly, it's already turned up in somewhat altered form within 40k - 

 

“We face greenskin invasion rimward, Eldar raiding coreward, rebellion trailing and the tendrils of a Hive Fleet incoming spinward. Situation excellent, attacking on all fronts…” 

- Captain Ferdina, Lord of the Marches of the Tigers Argent

source: Deathwatch: Rites of Battle pg. 36

 

[as a side-point, I'd personally have thought that due to the unwieldyness of bayonets (when affixed, it's often too short for a proper spear; not ideal for utilization as a rapier (although WWI French bayonet-fighting manuals *did* deliberately attempt to draw upon fencing in order to construct a viable fighting-style for them) or as an axe, and you're liable to cut yourself when attempting to beat somebody over the head by using your rifle as a club [both 'axe' and 'club' functions may actually be better attained via the utilization of one's entrenching tool ... while it can be rather strongly argued that the bayonet being used as a knife, instead of a knife-on-a-stick, is additionally better]), one of their prime purposes in close-assault is the role of the order to 'fix bayonets' as a morale booster - but I appreciate that others may have different experiences and insights in this regard. 

 

And with that in mind, given the Guard's evident quasi-Napoleonic modus operandi [which yes, does and should indeed work in-universe, in a rant for another time] ... you've reminded me to go look through the annals of the Napoleonic, Carolean, even American Civil War etc. etc. history for further material :D ] 

[Ryltar Thamior]

And, on that note ... Imperial Army; or perhaps other Warriors of the Imperium who made it to Terra too late for the Siege:
 

Two Grenadiers 

[originally in German, translated]

 

"TO France there wandered two grenadiers, 

In Russia once captives made. 

To German quarters they came after years, 

And bowed their heads, dismayed.

 

And there they were sorrowful tidings told 

That France was lost—and repelled, 

Destroyed and defeated the army bold— 

And the emperor captive held.

 

The grenadiers wept grievously 

When told this mournful lore. 

Then said the one: “Ah, woe is me, 

How my old wound is sore!”

 

“The song is sung” the other said, 

“I too would die with thee; 

But wife and child, if I were dead, 

Would perish utterly.”

 

“For wife and child what do I care! 

Far better longings I know: 

As hungry beggars let them fare— 

My emperor, emperor—woe!

 

“But grant me, brother, one only prayer: 

Now when I here shall die, 

My body take to France and there 

In French earth let me lie!

 

“My cross of honour with scarlet band 

Upon my heart be placed; 

And put my gun into my hand, 

My sword gird round my waist!

 

“Then quietly I’ll lie and hark, 

A sentry in my tomb, 

Till I the horses’ prancing mark, 

And hear the cannon’s boom.

 

“Then my emperor rides across my grave, 

And swords will be clashing hard: 

And armed I’ll rise up from my grave, 

My emperor to guard!” 

"

- Heinrich Heine

[The_son_of_Dorn]

Thousand Sons/Magnus - "There are none so blind as those that wont listen" - Neil Gaiman

[Ryltar Thamior]

A quote that's no doubt apt for any number of 40k situations; but which particularly seemed to conjure the steady push-back of the Loyalists on the road to Terra afore the Siege. 

"The humans, I think, knew they were doomed. But where another race would surrender to despair, the humans fought back with even greater strength. They made the Minbari fight for every inch of space. In my life, I have never seen anything like it. They would weep, they would pray, they would say goodbye to their loved ones and then throw themselves without fear or hesitation at the very face of death itself. Never surrendering. No one who saw them fighting against the inevitable could help but be moved to tears by their courage…their stubborn nobility. When they ran out of ships, they used guns. When they ran out of guns, they used knives and sticks and bare hands. They were magnificent. I only hope, that when it is my time, I may die with half as much dignity as I saw in their eyes at the end. They did this for two years. They never ran out of courage. But in the end…they ran out of time." 
- Londo Mollari, Babylon 5

[MegaVolt87]

 

HH writers just low key reading this thread looking for IRL quotes to add to HH book/ chapter intro's lol.

Severely doubt the writers are impressed by self-congratulatory references to the poet every person with dangly bits loves the most.

 

 

The whole HH is fan service, the market is the mainly dangly bits persons who buy and like this stuff. 

[Ryltar Thamior]

 

 

HH writers just low key reading this thread looking for IRL quotes to add to HH book/ chapter intro's lol.

Severely doubt the writers are impressed by self-congratulatory references to the poet every person with dangly bits loves the most.

 

 

The whole HH is fan service, the market is the mainly dangly bits persons who buy and like this stuff. 

 

Daily reminder of the time ADB apparently wound up having to rewrite a small bit of Master of Mankind ... because he realized he'd subconsciously done The Emperor's dialogue for that section, as Iron Maiden lyrics.