"Fire and blood. It always came down to fire and blood, or so his brothers in their wisdom claimed. Compliance was forged in fire, and cooled in blood, they said. Skies of ash and fields of bone. Fire and blood. It frustrated him to no end that such a belief was the guiding star of humanities great adventure, even the emperor seemed to hold to it, though, more for efficiencies sake than for any other reason. Fire and blood, efficiency and speed. The watchwords for the great crusade."

-Fulgrim on the Great Crusade


‘Listen to your blue-clad wretches yelling of courage and honor, courage and honor, courage and honor. Do you even know the meaning of those words? Courage is fighting the kingdom that enslaves you, no matter that their armies overshadow yours by ten thousand to one. You know nothing of courage. Honor is resisting a tyrant when all others suckle and grow fat on the hypocrisy he feeds them. You know nothing of honor.’

-Angron to Guilliman, Horus Hersey


"My sons, the galaxy is burning. We all bear witness to a final truth -- our way is not the way of the Imperium. You have never stood in the Emperor's light. Never worn the Imperial eagle. And you never will. You shall stand in midnight clad, your claws forever red with the lifeblood of my father's failed empire, warring through the centuries as the talons of a murdered god. Rise, my sons, and take your wrath across the stars, in my name. In my memory. Rise, my Night Lords."

-Konrad Curze, at the final gathering of the VIIIth Legion


"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."

-Khârn the Betrayer


"I was never a Son of Horus. I was and remain a Luna Wolf. A proud son of Cthonia, a loyal servant of the Emperor, beloved by all. I am your enemy."

-Garviel Loken, Isstvan III


"Our names may be forgotten, and our bones crumble to dust, but our deaths will echo through the millennia to come."

-Saul Tarvitz, Isstvan III


"Zeal makes all things possible, duty makes all things simple."

-First Captain Sigismund of the Imperial Fists Legion


"Before we go, let me say this: I understand the conflict in your hearts, how one may beat for duty while the other bleeds for your Legion brothers who will be sacrificed. But this is civil war. It is a time of confusion, and realigned loyalty. We have many heads but we act as one – one Legion with a single will. We are a union of the alike and the like-minded. We will not tolerate treachery. We will not allow our compact to fracture. We will not suffer the short-sightedness of our brother Legions, nor the averted gaze of the wider Imperium. We are Alpha Legion and we take the long view."

-Omegon, twin-primarch of the Alpha Legion


"From iron cometh strength! From strength cometh will! From will cometh faith! From faith cometh honour! From honour cometh iron!"

-Unbreakable Litany of the Iron Warriors


"All I ever wanted was the truth. Remember those words as you read the ones that follow. I never set out to topple my father's kingdom of lies from a sense of misplaced pride. I never wanted to bleed the species to its marrow, reaving half the galaxy clean of human life in this bitter crusade. I never desired any of this, though I know the reasons for which it must be done. But all I ever wanted was the truth."

-Opening Lines of the Book of Lorgar, First Canticle of Chaos


‘Part of me wishes I could, sir,’ said Loken. ‘Believe me, I want the warmth that being part of something greater brings. I want to belong. I had that with the Legion, but you took that away from me when you stabbed us all in the back.’

‘No,’ said Horus. ‘Garviel, no. That’s not–’

But Loken wasn’t about to stop now. ‘Turning my back on everything I knew, being cut off from the Legion that made me who I am? That was the worst moment of my life. It drove me insane. More than Tarik’s death or being buried alive on Isstvan, it was the heartbreak and yawning emptiness that finally broke me.’

‘Then come back to me, Garviel,’ said Horus. ‘Feel that warmth again, don’t you want to be part of the greatest endeavour the galaxy has ever seen?’

‘I already was,’ said Loken, turning his back on Horus. ‘It was called the Great Crusade.’

-Garviel Loken - Luna Wolf and loyal servant of the Emperor.


“Flashes of explosions bloomed in the city’s north. Shooting stars punched through the dark clouds overhead, scorching holes through which the glimmering stars could be seen. The stars shone down on the Choral City in time to watch the city die.

‘Did we hurt them, captain? asked Solathen. ‘Did this mean anything?’

Tarvitz thought for a moment before replying.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘we hurt them here. They’ll remember this.”

-Saul Tarvitz - Istvaan Atrocity