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This article collects all quotes concerning the Tyranids. The quotes themselves are organised in an Alphabetical order using the author's name. Quotes from an unnamed author are at the beginning of the list.
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Sergeant Learchus Abantes,
Ultramarines 4th Company
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They come at you in a tide of creatures so thick a blind man could score a hit ten times out of ten. Any man who can hold a gun can hit a tyranid. But no matter how many you kill with your guns, there will always be more, and it is our job to teach the men how to fight the ones that reach our lines.
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Warriors of Ultramar (Novel), Chapter Six
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| Jarv Advent, Senior Xenobiologist, Inquisitorial Institute of Proctos Minor (on Genestealers)
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I don't know where they come from. It seems highly unlikely that they evolved naturally into what they are now - impossible, given what we know about evolution. Perhaps they are some kind of bioweapon, created millennia ago by madmen for some long-forgotten war. If so, I suspect that their creators soon came to regret their creation. Or perhaps they come straight from the warp. Possibly the Lords of Chaos themselves cast them out because they were too unpleasant.
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Space Hulk (Board Game), 1989 (First Edition), Missions and Background book,  [Help]
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| Inquisitor Agmar
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They have only one purpose and there is nothing they will not do to accomplish this, no matter how vile or loathsome it might be. These abominations mean to destroy everything proud and noble, everything we hold dear and have fought so long to achieve.
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Codex Imperialis (Background Book), pg. 90
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| The more I learn about these aliens, the more I come to understand what drives them, the more I hate them. I hate them for what they are and for what they may one day become. I hate them not because they hate us but because they are incapable of good, honest, human hatred.
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Codex Imperialis (Background Book), [Help]
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| It is well known that destroying the more intelligent creatures in the swarm is essential to stop a Tyranid advance. Training in recognition and fire discipline is of some help in identifying the best targets but the chaos and confusion of the battlefield make it difficult for troops to pick out their targets amidst the swarming mass of creatures. Ultimately it has proven best to direct fire at the largest Tyranids in sight and pray to the Emperor that some of them are the leaders. - Halting the Abomination
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Titan II: Vipaporious, short-story Madness Lies [Help]
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| Captain Ascote on Venomthropes
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See that cloud that hangs around it? More than a minute in there and you’ll be bleeding out of places you didn’t even know you had.
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Magic: The Gathering's Universes Beyond Warhammer 40,000 - Venomthrope
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| Aun'shi of the Tau Empire
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How ironic it is that as fast as we spread progress and hope throughout the galaxy, the Tyranids spread death and despair. Only united can we hope to stand against them.
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Codex: Tyranids (4th Edition), page 43
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| Marneus Augustus Calgar, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines
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To think that Tyranids are mindless beasts is a grave mistake. When you fight Tyranids you face not only those before you on the battlefield, but the untold thousands which seek to surround you, which attack your supporting units and destroy your supply lines in perfect synchronicity. These aliens have shown evidence of both tactics and strategy that speaks of a far worse threat than that posed by a mere beast.
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Codex: Tyranids (5th Edition), page 52
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| Chaplain Ortan Cassius, Ultramarines Master of Sanctity
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The blasphemy of the Tyranids is such that only one solution is acceptable. Extermination.
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Codex: Space Marines (4th Edition), page 48
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| We must scour them from the stars before they do the same to us.
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Codex: Tyranids (4th Edition), page 43
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| Inquisitor Czevak
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There is a cancer eating at the Imperium. With each decade it advances deeper, leaving drained, dead worlds in its wake. This horror, this abomination, has thought and purpose that functions on an unimaginable, galactic scale and all we can do is try to stop the swarms of bioengineered monsters it unleashes upon us by instinct. We have given the horror a name to salve our fears; we call it the Tyranid race, but if is aware of us at all it must know us only as Prey.
- Czevak at the Conclave of Har
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Codex: Tyranids (5th Edition), pg. 7
Deathwatch Core Rulebook, pg. 369
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Major Ias'r Dashour,
892nd Tallarn Desert Raiders
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The tyranids are singular in purpose. We are born to serve the Aba Aba Mushira, but our lives are one of distraction. Not them, they are bred with one aspiration, and it is an aspiration without diversion, without division. They are remorseless, they are driven and they fear nothing. Why would they? They are reborn again and again, ready to fight and die, and continue on.
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Desert Raiders (Novel) - Hammer of the Emperor (Omnibus), Chapter 7, p. 627
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| Any man can oath-swear his fealty to the Emperor, but whether he lives or dies by that oath is what makes him true. I have faced down death before and never once hesitated in my allegiance to the Golden Throne and the High Lords of Terra. I see the same in the tyranids, as perverted as their cause may be. I cannot help but admire them, for if I can weather my faith against theirs and stand unbowed, then I have proven my loyalty to the Emperor. I ask that I die strong.
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Desert Raiders (Novel) - Hammer of the Emperor (Omnibus), Chapter 7, p. 627-628
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| Magos Biologis Alder Garrick
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The Tyranids are without a doubt the most rapidly evolving creatures in the galaxy. The Magos Biologis of Mars have observed developmental DNA leaps between broods originating from different hive fleets that would take other beasts millions of years to achieve. It appears that the Tyranid 'Norn Queens' or primogenitor organisms aboard the hive ships are capable of modifying their progeny in response to the environment and life-forms they encounter. Newly harvested genetic codes are assimilated, the prey's defensive measures are examined, and improved creatures are bio-engineered to overcome that resistance. Over time the myriad improvements to the hive fleet's genepool are melded with others, strengthening the entire race.
A case in point is to observe the degree of integration of the Tyranid's symbiote weapons. At first these were relatively crude and were carried and employed, however distastefully, by the creatures that used them like a gun or a sword. In later encounters Tyranids have exhibited, more and more frequently, weaponry meshed directly into the creatures carrying them. Now it has become impossible to tell where the Tyranid warrior ends and its weapon symbiotes begin. I think we can be assured that the Norn Queens will continue to work tirelessly towards more and more perfectly adapted for killing the inhabitants of this galaxy just as they have in others before ours. Simply put, over the coming centuries we may be out-evolved to the point of extinction.
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Codex: Tyranids (4th Edition), page 5
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| Inquisitor Grael
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Genestealers are perfectly bio-engineered infiltrators that rove ahead of the Tyranid hive fleets seeking rich feeding grounds. These deadly creatures work by implanting and subverting members of the host species, striving to dominate their victims through alien cunning or terrifying violence as the situation requires.
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Eternal Damnation (Graphic Novel), short-story Testament, [Help]
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| Excerpted from a missive sent by Commissar General Vortigus Hornth, Acting Warmaster; Diatan Sector, Ultima Segmentum. 285/988.M41
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We retreat, we fall back, we make strategic withdrawals, we consolidate, we evacuate. When in the name of all that's holy are we going to fight back against the Tyranid threat? Events at Ichar IV and Macragge have proved that the hive fleets can be stopped, but where are the armies and the ships to stop them again? Why have the Adeptus Mechanicus ceased sending us munitions and weapons from their forge worlds? Do they believe they can stand alone and seek only to protect their own domains? These are important questions which demand answers at the highest level and, in my personal opinion, the punishment of those responsible - assignment to penal regiments in the path of the Tyranid advance would seem most appropriate.
Believe me, sirs, I can appreciate that outposts and minor stations cannot be held against the infernal numbers of these aliens without an unconscionable expenditure of force. I have seen with my own eyes the results of such folly. I can also appreciate that the strategy of Holy Terra is not mine to question, but I fear that the perspective gained from viewing reports from thousands of light years away belies the seriousness of the situation here on the eastern fringe.
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Codex: Tyranids (4th Edition), pg. 44
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| Attributed to Hector Prime commander of the Tower of Adamant, Hethgard, executed for cowardice
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“And I looked upon the great hive beast, and knew that hope was lost.”
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Deathwatch Core Rulebook, pg. 369
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| Galaxos Klynesmith, Biophagus
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We guarantee you that within a week, you will feel like a new man.
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Magic: The Gathering's Universes Beyond Warhammer 40,000 - Biophagus
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| Inquisitor Lord Kryptman
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Tyranids are creatures from our darkest nightmares. But remember this: they can bleed, and they can die.
- during a Council to plan the defense of Tarsis Ultra
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Warriors of Ultramar (Novel), Ch. 4
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| An alien threat has risen from beyond the abyss, a swarm so vast that it blots out the stars. This horror fights neither for power nor territory, but rather to fee a hunger so insatiable that it will eventually devour the entire galaxy.
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Codex: Tyranids (5th Edition), Back Cover
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Though never a verdant world, the lifeless ball of rock that we discovered was unrecognizable as Tyran Primus. The creatures that did this are a threat to the galaxy and must be exterminated by the light of the God-Emperor.
- concluding his report on the ruins of Tyran Primus
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Deathwatch: The Achilus Assault, pg. 47
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| Enforcer Maitland, Epsilon Hive
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The torchlight showed up a trail of blood leading to the back room, so like a fool I followed it. Lying in the darkness was one of the smaller ones, its jaws distended around the torso of what I assume used to be the father. He was still convulsing. In my horror, I shoot the victim first. Big mistake.
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Codex: Tyranids (4th Edition), page 40
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| Sergeant Torias Telion, Ultramarines 10th Company
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A new Tyrant joined the fray and, in an eyeblink, the whole character of the swarm changed. The ravening berserker-spirit that had driven the Tyranids onto the ridge was gone as if it had never existed. Left in its place was something cannier and infinitely more worrisome. It was then that I knew the battle to be lost.
- on the Battle for Macragge
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Codex: Tyranids (5th Edition), pg. 13
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| Chief Librarian Varro Tigurius of the Ultramarines
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As I looked into its dead black eyes, I saw the terrible sentience it had in place of a soul. Behind that was the steel will of its leader. Further still I could feel its primogenitor coldly assessing me from the void. And looking back from the deepest recesses of the alien's mind I perceived what I can only describe as an immortal hunger. We can slay the Tyranids on our worlds, blast their fleets from the space, grind their armies to torn and ruined fragments. But their hunger? That is beyond our ability to slay.
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Codex: Tyranids (5th Edition), pg. 13
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| Sergeant Thresher, 11th Catachan Jungle Fighters
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The thing that scares me most of all is that it burst out from the jungle directly in front of our ambush position. It had killed Jensen and Lucca before we knew what was happening. Nothing that large should be able to move like that.
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Codex: Tyranids (4th Edition), page 38
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| Lexmechanic Ursis, Belis Corona
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To think of these creatures as beasts is a grave mistake. We have observed their vanguard organisms herd prey like cattle into the path of the main swarms. We have seen expend them tides of lesser beasts so that their enemies have no ammunition left when their leaders attack, and armoured columns channeled into narrow defiles where but one of their assault beasts can tear through an entire tank company. Only yesterday we received a pict-capture of several platoons falling back into the keep of Gnex Bastion, only to be trapped and slaughtered by burrowing organisms that burst from the ground. These creatures have shown evidence of a tactical acumen that speaks of a far worse threat than that posed by a mere beast.
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Codex: Tyranids (4th Edition), pg. 15
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| Lieutenant-Colonel Uskra, Imperial Guard 13th/23rd Tiger Lizards
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When you fight Tyranids you face not only those before you on the field of battle but the untold thousands which seek to surround you, which attack your supporting units and destroy your supply lines in perfect synchronicity.
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Warhammer 40,000 Compendium, [Help]
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Across the heavens the flotilla of bio-ships stretched out, impelled by instinct to hibernate again until new prey was found, new resources could be plundered. In their wake was left a bare rock orbiting a star, scoured of every organic particle, stripped of all but the most basic elements. Nothing was left of the farming world of Langosta III, there were no testaments to the humans who had once lived there. Now all that was left was an airless asteroid, the unmarked death place of three million people.
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Codex: Tyranids (3rd Edition), pg. 40
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| From the reflections of an unattributed adept
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Every one of the myriad of Tyranid warrior-creatures is a killing machine, perfectly adapted to slaughter its victims. They are the ultimate predators, and we are their prey.
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Deathwatch Core Rulebook, pg. 370
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| Unknown
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They are coming! I feel them scratching inside my mind, scratching, screaming, running, so many - so, so many voices. They are coming for us - flesh, body and soul!
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Codex: Tyranids (4th Edition), pg. 66
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| Unknown Astropath
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They ... are ... coming!
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Magic: The Gathering's Universes Beyond Warhammer 40,000 - Shadow in the Warp
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| Unknown Clamavus
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The star-born approach! Their holy angels descend! Take up arms, my brothers and sisters, for the Day of Ascension is upon us!
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Magic: The Gathering's Universes Beyond Warhammer 40,000 - Clamavus
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| Anon
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They came from the dark places between the stars, from the abyss into which even the Emperor's angels fear to gaze. Monstrous in form, endless in number, the swarm descended to devour all.
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Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition Rulebook, pg. 110
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[Help]
