Ecclesiarchy Quotes
From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
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This article collects famous quotes made about the Imperial creed, and quotes made by members of the Ecclesiarchy. The quotes are organised in alphabetical order using the name of the speaker. Unattributed quotes are at the end of the list.
For quotes made by, or about, members of the Adepta Sororitas, see the dedicated article.
Contents
Attributed
Imperial Texts and Prayers
| Tome | Quote | Source |
| The Books of Solace, Chant of Abrogation |
Be what the Emperor intended you to be, for then you shall succeed. | Dark Heresy Core Rulebook, pg. 24 |
| Cletius 14, The Book of the Redeemer |
Thou shalt offer no mercy to the heretic. Thou shalt destroy their graven images and obliterate their mortal forms with the Emperor's holy fire. | Kill Team: Blood and Zeal, pg. 14 |
| Commandments to the Ecclesiarchy | A man without faith is a man without a soul. Suffer not the soulless in thy ministry, for they make doors for dangerous forces. | Dark Heresy Core Rulebook, pg. 25 |
| Diatibe of Vultis by Confessor Presciado |
There is but one virtue by which the sanctity of the Imperium may be preserved: Intolerance. | Kill Team: Blood and Zeal, pg. 14 |
| Ecclesiarchal Proscriptions MCXVILIV | BY THE EMPEROR
Thou shalt attend to thy work at the appointed hour. Thou shalt seek no reward but the satisfaction of thy Master. Thou shalt know thy Duties. Thou shalt Obey thy Master in all matters. Thou shalt rejoice in thy Service. Thou shalt be grateful of thy Master's Favour. Thou shalt not make improper use of thy Master's comm-links, nor his las-lines, nor his opticon either. Thou shalt be glad of thy Master's Punishment, for it is deserved and it improves thee. Thou shalt not speak but Praise of thy Master. Thou shalt not look upon the works of the Heretic nor speak of them. |
Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition Rulebook, pg. 110 |
| Fede Imperialis
|
A spiritu dominatus,
Domine, libra nos, From the lightning and the tempest, Our Emperor, deliver us. From plague, temptation and war, Our Emperor, deliver us, From the scourge of the Kraken, Our Emperor, deliver us.
Our Emperor, deliver us, From the begetting of daemons, Our Emperor, deliver us, From the curse of the mutant, Our Emperor, deliver us, A morte perpetua, Domine, libra nos. That thou wouldst bring them only death, That thou shouldst spare none, That thou shouldst pardon none We beseech thee, destroy them. |
Codex: Sisters of Battle (2nd Edition), pg. 58; The Inquisition (Background Book) pg. 38 |
| Frateris Militia Call to Arms | We fight not in expectation of reward, nor in pursuit of glory. We fight for the veneration of the Golden Throne, for there is no greater calling. | Kill Team: Blood and Zeal, pg. 15 |
| Historica Pilgrimage, Chapter I |
The Grand Pilgrimage
The most faithful followers of the Imperial Creed will embark on the Grand Pilgrimage from Ophelia VII to Terra, passing through Chiros and Gathalamor. The journey generally takes around nine years, once the pilgrim has safely reached Ophelia VII. |
Codex: Sisters of Battle (2nd Edition), pg. 25 |
| Imperial hymnal | Love the Emperor,
for He is the salvation of mankind Obey His words, for He will lead you into the light of the future Heed His wisdom, for He will protect you from evil Whisper His prayers with devotion, for they will salve your soul Honour His servants, for they speak in His voice Tremble before His majesty, for we all walk in His immortal shadow |
Warhammer 40,000 2nd Edition Rulebook, pg. 70 |
| Prime Edicts of the Holy Synod of the Adeptus Ministorum | When the people forget their duty they are no longer human and become something less than beasts. They have no place in the bosom of humanity nor in the heart of the Emperor. Let them die and be forgotten. | Codex Imperialis (Background Book), pg. 10 Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition Rulebook, pg. 238 |
| Reflections of Purity, Excerpt, dictated by Arch Deacon Procurator Priam |
Do not linger too long on your own greatness; it is as ash and your pride as fragile as sun bleached bone. Think instead only of the light of Him on Earth, which illuminates both life and death, rise and fall, and is forever unfailing in its greatness. | Dark Heresy: Ascension, pg. 120 |
| Rite of Application | I affix thee with the seal of sanctity. I bestow upon thee the Emperor's Blessing. | Kill Team: Blood and Zeal, pg. 39 |
| The Road of Salvation: A Guide to Following in the Steps of the Prophets and Saints of the Imperium, Excerpt |
Imperial citizens who undertake the arduous seven year 'Pilgrimage of Macharius' must obtain the Solar Medal before they set forth. The medal can only be purchased at the Offices of the Pilgrimorium on the shrine world of Macharia, and entitles the pilgrim to seek passage on any craft traveling along the prescribed pilgrimage routes. | Codex: Imperial Guard (3rd Edition, 1st Codex), inside back cover |
| Progenia Scholastica, Volume 1: Discipline | The mutant may match you in strength, the heretic in zeal and the witch in cunning. It is discipline and strength of spirit that separates you from these vile traitors, and the drill abbot who shall instill within you these traits. Listen well to their words. | Kill Team: Blood and Zeal, pg. 16 |
| Psalm of Serene Glory | To the craven wrath be given, keep us in serenity. We your blessed vessels, liberate humanity. | Adepta Sororitas: Penitence, Episode 1 |
| His light doth shine where hearts be open, and the spirit calls him near. Lo, in glory do the faithful, serve as witness and revere. | Adepta Sororitas: Penitence, Episode 2 | |
| Darkness shields not sin nor schism. By our fires your will be done. | Adepta Sororitas: Penitence, Episode 3 | |
| The Tome of Golden Light | Close thy mind to the whisperings of the unholy. Blind thyself to heretical idols. | Kill Team: Blood and Zeal, pg. 15 |
A
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Brevet Captain Akahir of the Absolvers |
I’ll tolerate a meddling Inquisitor over another decadent, dogmatic sybarite of the damned Ecclesiarchy. | Wrath & Glory Core Rulebook, pg. 58 |
B
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| from the Sermons of Cardinal Beneficta | The Heretic and Blasphemer can offer no excuse for their crimes. Those who are pardoned merely live to further shroud Humanity from the Light of the Emperor with the Darkness of their souls. | Codex: Sisters of Battle (2nd Edition), pg. 24 |
C
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Caddaway, Redemptionist theologian |
The glory we gain blinds us first with its lustre. - from Paths to Damnation |
The Traitor's Hand (Novel) - Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium (Omnibus) Editorial note after ch. 10, pg. 624 |
| Saint Celestine | Despair, and you give yourself to the shadows. Believe, truly believe in the Emperor of Mankind, and you shall walk in his light no matter how dark the path you tread. | The Gathering Storm Companion, pg. 25 |
| Dolan Chirosius | On the Day of Affirmation it is the custom to light a candle, small and sweetly scented, and while it burns to silently think on those days so long ago. For a few minutes every year the whole universe of mankind falls silent and bends its mind to one purpose - billions of billions of souls drawn together in memory of the Great Confessor. - in the Ministorum Libra Martyr |
Codex Imperialis (Background Book), pg. 39 |
| I am not asking for blood. I can take your blood.
I am asking for souls. Only you can give me your souls. |
Warhammer 40,000: Wargear (2nd Edition), pg. 56 | |
| I tread the path of Righteousness. Though it be paved with broken glass, I will walk it barefoot; though it cross rivers of fire, I will pass over them; though it wanders wide, the light of the Emperor guides my step. - Sermon On the Road to Gathalamor |
Codex: Sisters of Battle (2nd Edition), pg. 44 | |
| It is the story of a man who did insane things because he put in practice what many Saints have preached. in the Ministorum Libra Martyr |
Codex: Sisters of Battle (2nd Edition), pg. 9 | |
| Arch Deacon Drass Corothis, Confessor to Lord Solar Fell | Look first for the traitor, for he covets your rule. Look then for the xenos, for it hungers for your flesh. Look then for the fiend, for it seeks to consume your very soul. | Deathwatch Core Rulebook, pg. 295 |
| Preacher Silon Constantine, Fenksworld | By the Saints and the Sigillite himself! If you don’t move, I’ll take this hammer to your head! | Dark Heresy Core Rulebook, pg. 62 |
| Confessor-Militant Coriola | The Emperor has bestowed upon you a most holy gift: His hatred. Wield it without restraint. Let all who question His divinity be subject to your wrath. | Kill Team: Blood and Zeal, pg. 15 |
D
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Ecclesiarch Deacis IX | Men united in the purpose of the Emperor are blessed in his sight, and shall live forever in his memory. | Daemonifuge, Book I, back cover The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer, pg. 83 |
| The words of the faithful are the mountains. But the deeds of the faithful are the world. - final words |
Dark Adeptus (Novel), ch. Five, pg. 73 | |
| What a tragedy that so many millions of true men should have died under the evil eye of that cruel regime. To the Adepts of Earth it must have seemed that the Emperor has deserted them and the end had finally come. The screams of the innocent rent the night as men were dragged from sleep and taken into the pits of the Assassins.
The Adeptus Astartes held aloof and looked to their own councils, unsure what course history would take. Even the Tech-Priests turned away from the High Lords. The damned Purge of Vandire divided man from man and tore at the Imperium like a wounded beast that claws its own vitals in its agony. What hope was there left for men bereft on the Emperor's love. Yet of all the men of Earth at least one servant had the faith to say In The Emperor's Name Enough! That man was Sebastian Thor. |
Warhammer 40,000: Wargear (2nd Edition), pg. 47 | |
| No army is big enough to conquer the galaxy. But faith alone can overturn the universe. | Codex Imperialis (Background Book), pg. 40 | |
| One man can start a landslide with the casting of a single pebble. - from The Legend of Thor from The Age of Apostasy |
Codex: Sisters of Battle (2nd Edition), pg. 12 |
E
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Saint Emelia | Taking the long view is all well and prudent, but take care that you don’t become so preoccupied with it that you miss what’s right under your nose. - Precepts of Saint Emelia, Chapter XXXIV, Verse XII |
For the Emperor (Novel) - Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium (Omnibus), ch. 13, pg. 215 |
| The path to duty is often a stony one, made smoother by thought for others. | Duty Calls (Novel) - Ciaphas Cain: Defender of the Imperium (Omnibus), ch. Twenty-Four, pg. 462 | |
| Preacher Eran Gudi | Never forget you are the walls of steel and iron, between Mankind and a thousand horrors too unspeakable to name. You are the walls of Hell. - address to the Cadian 17th Armoured Regiment |
Imperial Armour - Imperial Vehicles for Warhammer 40,000, pg. 55 |
G
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Confessor Ganinimus | Prayer may cleanse the soul, but pain cleanses the body. Both are necessary for the survival of humanity. | Codex: Sisters of Battle (2nd Edition), pg. 55 |
H
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Ayla Hartin, 77th Gilead Gravediggers |
Father Yakob stood on the front lines bolder than any of us, spitting oratory as vicious and beautiful as las blasts. He gave us hope when we faced those horrors, and led our charge with only a holy book in his hand! I’ll certainly miss him on the next assault. | Wrath & Glory Core Rulebook, pg. 58 |
| Cardinal Armandus Helfire | I long for death, not because I seek peace, but because I seek the war eternal. - Reflections on the Long Death |
Dark Adeptus (Novel), ch. One, pg. 7 |
I
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Ecclesiarch Issus XLVII | The Daemonic leads to two crimes. You turn away from the path of righteousness. And you abandon the Emperor as the object of your devotion. For the first, death is merely a just retribution. The second is a heresy so terrible that no punishment can be sufficient. Yet the search for an appropriate penalty continues, and it shall be found. - Malleus Daemonicus, The Declaration of Ecclesiarch Issus XLVII |
Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness, pg. 260 reprinted in Codex: Daemonhunters (3rd Edition), pg. 19 |
J
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Uriah Jacobus | Death in service to the Emperor is its own reward. Life in failure to Him is its own condemnation. - Epistles (Verse 93) |
Dark Adeptus (Novel), ch. Fifteen, pg. 261 |
K
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Euphrati Keeler, Remembrancer |
The Emperor of Mankind is the Light and the Way, and all his actions are for the benefit of mankind, which is his people. The Emperor is God and God is the Emperor, so it is taught in the Lectio Divinitatus, and above all things, the Emperor will protect... | Horus Rising (Novel), Part Two, ch. Six, pg. 330 |
| Cardinal Khrysdam | A Heretic may see the truth and seek redemption. He may be forgiven his past and will be absolved in death. A Traitor can never be forgiven. A Traitor will never find peace in this world or the next. There is nothing as wretched or as hated in all the world as a Traitor. - Instructum Absolutio |
Codex: Witch Hunters (3rd Edition), pg. 42 |
| Deacon Euphrati Kyne | Angels, they call them, and magnificent they are indeed when they crush our profane foes... but what angel does not believe that our hallowed Emperor is God? — One week prior to excommunication and execution |
Wrath & Glory Core Rulebook, pg. 70 |
N
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Cardinal Nomura | A swarm of mechanised locusts sweeping over the land, stripping it bare of resources, bringing death and destruction to anything that stands in its path. Emperor preserve us against the predations of these so-called Orkish Cults of Speed. - at the Conclave of Hessen |
Fantasy Flight Games teaser of the "Deadly Salvage" - War Pack for the Conquest Card Game (last accessed 7 July 2015) |
| Apollonia Nostro, Ecclesiarchal Confessor |
It is not the toxic runoff of the manufactorum that mutates them, but their impurity of mind and soul. Perhaps if they embrace the Emperor they can be saved... if not, fire never fails to cleanse. | Wrath & Glory Core Rulebook, pg. 68 |
| Dallarn Nox, Ecclesiastic Confessor |
When the foul taint of the Warp touches a pure soul, they cease to be Human; they are but vessels for wretched forces to enter and poison His holy realm. | Wrath & Glory Core Rulebook, pg. 53 |
P
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Saint Praxides of Ophelia VII | When it was over, when the blood had dried and the fires had died down, then we found we were the same as we had always been - small and terrified human beings, with only the light of the Emperor to see by in this dark galaxy of sin. - Notes on Martyrdom |
Dark Adeptus (Novel), ch. Seventeen, pg. 299 |
S
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Sister Edwynne Salemon | Many of the unwashed claim to have 'seen men-of-hoof', or 'heard brayers in the night'. No more than pernicious hogwash, every last worde of this be. Most precious faithe is suffering thanks to vile rumour and evil lie. As God-Emperor is my moste holie witness, I did hear a soul question if He could protect her. Into shackles and cell did I place her for such blasphemous doubt.' - excerpt from Men-beasts: An Myth Moste Dangerous |
Kill Team: Gallowfall, pg. 29 |
| Saint Sabbat | There are no miracles. There are only men.' - Epistles |
The Sabbat Worlds Crusade (Background Book), pg. 9 Honour Guard (Novel), Ch. 17 |
| Betwixt the wash of the river and the waft of the wind, let my sins be transfigured to virtues. - Catechism of Hagia, Book I, Chapter 3, verse XXXII |
Honour Guard (Novel), Ch. 1 | |
| Where there is an enemy, rage! Where there is a victory, rejoice! - Epistles |
Sabbat Martyr (Novel), Ch. 5 | |
| Do not shirk! Do not falter! Give them death in the name of Sabbat! - At the gates of Harkalon |
Honour Guard (Novel), Ch. 10 | |
| If the road is easy, the destination is worthless. - Proverbs |
Honour Guard (Novel), Ch. 9 | |
| Lay a fire within your soul and another between your hands, and let both be your weapons. For one is faith and the other is victory and neither may ever be put out. - Lessons |
Honour Guard (Novel), Ch. 4 | |
| Let the sky welcome you, for therein dwells the Emperor and his saints. - Proverbs |
Honour Guard (Novel), Ch. 2 | |
| Though my tears be as many as the spots of rain falling in the Hagian woods, one for every fallen soul loyal to the Throne, there would not be enough. - Biographica Hagia |
Honour Guard (Novel), Ch. 11 | |
| That which was will be. That which dieth will live. That which falleth will rise up. This, I say to you, is the nature of things, if you but once believe. - Epistles |
Sabbat Martyr (Novel), Ch. 2 | |
| As I have been called to the holy work, so I will call others to me. - Epistles |
Honour Guard (Novel), Ch. 8 | |
| Confessor Maric von Shard | Nonsense, If I cannot offer my services to a troubled servant of the God-Emperor, what sort of priest am I? |
Outgunned (Novel) (Hard Cover): Chapter Fifteen, pg. 134 |
T
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Yordus Tan, Ministorum Preacher |
Deluded blasphemers all — would you rather believe in our evident God-Emperor, or some spirit in the machine? And you’d get a better conversation from a slab of plascrete. Though I must admit, they did a wonderful job on my new eyes. | Wrath & Glory Core Rulebook, pg. 55 |
| Confessor Gerrich Tharagard | Your sins have condemned you. The price of His forgiveness is your life. Rejoice! Upon this battlefield, you shall not wait long for your return to grace. | Wrath & Glory: Forsaken System, pg. 113 |
| Sebastian Thor | A single man with faith can triumph over a legion of the faithless. Untold billions of the faithful can never be opposed. - Sermons of Sebastian Thor, volume XI Chapter IV |
Codex: Sisters of Battle (2nd Edition), pg. 11 Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition Rulebook, pg. 120 |
| The Emperor is our Father and our Guardian, but we must also guard the Emperor. - Sermons of Sebastian Thor, volume XIV chapter I |
Codex: Sisters of Battle (2nd Edition), pg. 15 | |
| I will steal from the plate of decadence to feed the mouths of the powerless. - Sermons, volume XIV chapter XXXVIII |
Codex: Sisters of Battle (2nd Edition), pg. 16 | |
| A war waged by committee is a war already lost. - Sermons, vol. XV, ch. DIV |
Necropolis (Novel), ch. 6 | |
| The strength of the Emperor is Humanity, and the strength of Humanity is the Emperor. If one turns from the other we shall all become the Lost and the Damned. - Sermons, volume XXVII chapter LXII |
Codex: Sisters of Battle (2nd Edition), pg. 54 | |
| Give me a gun that never fires! Give me sword that is ever blunt! Give me a weapon that deals no wound as long as it always strikes awe! - Address to the Convent Sanctorum |
Dark Adeptus (Novel), ch. Fourteen | |
| If I have strayed from the path of obedience it is only to follow the most sacred of all directions, those of the Emperor himself, for is it not written in the Book of the Astronomican, 'A true servant follows his Master if he listens to the heart and not the head.' - The Trial of Sebastian Thor |
Warhammer 40,000 4th Edition Rulebook, pg. 66 | |
| Cardinal Shavo Togandis | You are the dark heart of man, Leto. You are the evil that can lurk in any of us, the potential to commit the most heinous acts and do it with a smile on our faces. There is a wall of conscience between acts of good and evil inside most of us, but that's missing in you. I don't know why, but for you there is no concept of evil, just results. | The Killing Ground (Novel) ch. Nineteen |
U
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Ecclesiarch Dariya Ule, Lord Prefector of the Scholastica Psykana |
There is a common misconception. Even among the... gifted, that the energies of the empyrean differ in aspect. That the underlying sources of power behind the miracles of the blessed saints and the perverse ravages of heretics and daemons must somehow be inherently, morally separate. Like water from a cistern, power drawn from one focality of the immaterium will sustain and enliven, some believe, while that pulled from another might poison and corrupt. Entire cults and cabals revolve around such misguided tenets, determined – often with obscene focus of purpose – to find “pure” wells from which they might draw without risk.
Even within the scholastica, acolyte, these beliefs are not entirely unheard of, though I have worked tirelessly to suppress such nonsense as heresy. There are no safe havens within the torrent of the warp, acolyte, because there are no incorruptible fragments of the human soul. The immaterium, like all other realms of the universe, holds no innate spiritual predilections at all, and the raw, Chaotic energy of the empyrean can be no more hallowed nor corrupt than a given sea wave or breeze. And yet, unlike the ocean or sky, the fabric of the immaterium is inevitably, inextricably shaped by the moral composure of the souls that access it. And while the source substance might be spiritually indifferent, the resulting symbiosis certainly is not. In the best of cases, the empyrean, accessed by a mind resting at peace within the Emperor’s will, produces wonders unbelievable to behold. In the worst, when given to a mind under torment, that same power takes on another flavour entirely. |
Witchbringer (Novel), Chapter 1 |
V
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Preacher Veltros Theodorus before the third assault on Tarrisus Ridge | Though the darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Let not men's souls be broken in the crucible of war. - Prayer |
Imperial Armour - Imperial Vehicles for Warhammer 40,000, pg. 9 |
| The Credos of Saint Volpo | Hear not the pleas of the innocent, for virtue is a lie. We are all sinners. In death the Emperor shall make his judgement upon our souls. | Kill Team: Blood and Zeal, pg. 14 |
Z
| Speaker | Quote | Source |
| Confessor Ambrus Zadorov | Rise up ye faithful. Sing loud the benediction of the God-Emperor and smother this heresy in the righteous chorus of your belief! | Kill Team: Blood and Zeal, pg. 7 |
Unattributed
| Quote | Speaker/Note | Source |
| Fortune deliver you by the nine holy wounds! | Ayatani blessing | Honour Guard (Novel), Ch. 3 |
| From this high rock, from this peak, let the light of worship shine so that the Emperor himself might see it from his Golden Throne. | Dedication on the high altar of the Tempelum Infarfarid Sabbat | Honour Guard (Novel), Ch. 5 |
