“Solomon Kane stood forth alone,
grim man of a somber race:
"Worthy of death he well may be,
but the court ye held was a mockery,
"Ye hid your spite in a travesty
where Justice hid her face.
"More of the man had ye been,
on deck your sword to cleanly draw
"Inforthright fury from its sheath,
and openly cleave him to the teeth --
"Rather than slink and hide beneath
a hollow word of Law.”
Source: The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane
“I have not died as men may die, nor sinned as men have sinned,
But I have reached a misty sky upon a granite wind.”
Source: Robert E. Howard: Selected Poems
“The little poets sing of little things:
Hope, cheer, and faith, small queens and puppet kings;
Lovers who kissed and then were made as one,
And modest flowers waving in the sun.
The mighty poets write in blood and tears
And agony that, flame-like, bites and sears.
They reach their mad blind hands into the night,
To plumb abysses dead to human sight;
To drag from gulfs where lunacy lies curled,
Mad, monstrous nightmare shapes to blast the world.
MUSINGS
[click on the thumbnail by Jack "King" Kirby]”
“Mingle my dust with the burning brand,
Scatter it free to the sky
Fling it wide on the ocean’s sand,
From peaks where the vultures fly.”
Source: Robert E. Howard Selected Letters 1923-1930
“Be ready; now is the beginning of happenings.”
Source: Swords of Shahrazar
“you civilized men are soft; your lives are not nailed to your spines as are ours”
Source: A Witch Shall Be Born
“Me estremecí al imaginar el insondable abismo de tiempo que se abre entre el presente y aquella época en que la tierra se estremeció, levantando como una ola aquellas montañas azules que cubrieron cosas inconcebibles.”
Source: The Black Stone
“He was not afraid, but slightly bewildered, as a barbarian always is when confronted by the evidence of civilized networks and systems, the workings of which are so baffling and mysterious to him.”
Source: God in the Bowl
“A wolf was no less a wolf because a whim of chance caused him to run with the watch-dogs.”
Source: Beyond the Black River
“But not all men seek rest and peace; some are born with the spirit of the storm in their blood, restless harbingers of violence and bloodshed, knowing no other path....”
“Wenn das Leben eine Illusion ist, dann bin ich es nicht weniger, und somit ist die Illusion für mich Wirklichkeit.”
Source: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
“Well, last night in a tavern, a captain in the king's guard offered violence to the sweetheart of a young solider, who naturally ran him through. But it seems there is some cursed law against killing guardsmen, and the boy and his girl fled away. It was bruited about that I was seen with them, and so today I was haled into court, and a judge asked me where the lad had gone. I replied that since he was a friend of mine, I could not betray him. Then the court waxed wroth, and the judge talked a great deal about my duty to the state, and society, and other things I did not understand, and bade me tell where my friend had flown. By this time I was becoming wrathful myself, for I had explained my position.
But I choked my ire and held my peace, and the judge squalled that I had shown contempt for the court, and that I should be hurled into a dungeon to rot until I betrayed my friend. So then, seeing that they were all mad, I drew my sword and cleft the judge's skull; then I cut my way out of the court, and seeing the high constable's stallion tied near by, I rode for the wharfs, where I thought to find a ship bound for foreign parts.
- Conan the Cimmerian, Queen of the Black Coast”
“With a detached feeling he watched, as a man might watch a play; immersed in a feeling of overpowering unreality, the Cimmerian was no longer sure of his own identity; he only knew that he was looking upon the external evidence of the unseen play of vast Outer forces, beyond his understanding.”
Source: The Tower of the Elephant (Conan)
“A kingdom is not lost by a single defeat.”
Source: Conan the conqueror
“Civilization is a natural and inevitable consequence - whether good or evil I am not prepared to state.”
“Break the skin of civilization and you find the ape, roaring and red-handed.”
“Wits and swords are as straws against the wisdom of the Darkness.”
Source: Fantastical Tales - The Ultimate Collection of Sword & Sorcery Action-Adventures, Time Travel & Mythical Worlds: Conan the Barbarian Series, The ‘Kull the Conqueror
“For man's only weapon is courage that flinches not from the gates of Hell itself, and against such not even the legions of Hell can stand.”
Source: THE ADVENTURES OF SOLOMON KANE: 7 NOVELS, 1 POEM
“Time and times are but cogwheels, unmatched, grinding on oblivious to one another. Occasionally - oh, very rarely! - the cogs fit; the pieces of the plot snap together momentarily and give men faint glimpses beyond the veil of this everyday blindness we call reality.”
Source: THE CTHULHU MYTHOS – Complete Collection: The Children of the Night, The Black Stone, The Thing on the Roof, The Challenge From Beyond & The Fire of Asshurbanipal: The Gateway into the Ancient Dimension of Terror Inhabited with Unspeakable Creatures, a Pantheon of Alien Extra-Dimensional Deities and Mythical Horrors Which Predate Humanity
“I became a writer in spite of my environments.”
Source: The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 1: Volume 1: The Shadow Kingdom
“But the idea of a man making his living by writing seemed, in that hardy environment, so fantastic that even today I am sometimes myself assailed by a feeling of unreality.”
Source: The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 1: Volume 1: The Shadow Kingdom
“But whatever my failure, I have this thing to remember - that I was a pioneer in my profession, just as my grandfathers were in theirs, in that I was the first man in this section to earn his living as a writer.”
“I have not been a success, and probably never will be.”
“I had neither expert aid nor advice. I studied no courses in writing; until a year or so ago, I never read a book by anybody advising writers how to write.”
“I have accomplished little enough, but such as it is, it is the result of my own efforts.”
“It seems to me that many writers, by virtue of environments of culture, art and education, slip into writing because of their environments.”
Source: The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 1: Volume 1: The Shadow Kingdom
“Some mechanism in my sub-consciousness took the dominant characteristics of various prize-fighters, gunmen, bootleggers, oil field bullies, gamblers, and honest workmen I had come in contact with, and combining them all, produced the amalgamation I call Conan the Cimmerian.”
“I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.”
Source: Conan the Barbarian
“Barbarism is the natural state of mankind.”
Source: The Weird Tales of Conan the Barbarian
“In this world men struggle and suffer vainly, finding pleasure only in the bright madness of battle; dying, their souls enter a gray misty realm of clouds and icy winds, to wander cheerlessly throughout eternity.”
Source: CONAN THE BARBARIAN SERIES – Complete Collection (Fantasy & Action-Adventure Classics): Pre-historic world of dark magic and savagery - 20 books about the Cimmerian Barbarian, Thief, Pirate and Eventual King of Aquilonia During the pre-Ice Age, Hyborian Age, Featuring a Poem and an Essay
“I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I see not beyond death. Let me live while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. I know this: if life is an illusion, then I am no less than an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.”
“Over the souls of men spread the condor wings of colossal monsters and all manner of evil things prey upon the heart and soul and body of Man. Yet it may be in some far day the shadows shall fade and the Prince of Darkness be chained forever in his hell. And till then mankind can but stand up stoutly to the monsters in his own heart and without, and with the aid of God he may yet triumph.”
Source: ROBERT E. HOWARD Ultimate Collection – 300+ Cult Classics, Adventure Novels, Western, Horror & Detective Stories, Historical Books (Including Poetry, Essays, Articles & Letters) - ALL in One Volume): Sword & Sorcery Fiction Including Complete Conan the Barbarian, Solomon Kane and Kull the Conqueror Series, as well as Weird Fiction, Fantasy Stories of the Weird West, The Cthulhu Mythos Tales and more
“But not all men seek rest and peace; some are born with the spirit of the storm in their blood.”
Source: A Witch Shall Be Born: American modern Literature
“Never the less, at the age of fifteen, having never seen a writer, a poet, a publisher or a magazine editor, and having only the vaguest ideas of procedure, I began working on the profession I had chosen.”
Source: The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 1: Volume 1: The Shadow Kingdom
“The people among which I lived - and yet live, mainly - made their living from cotton, wheat, cattle, oil, with the usual percentage of business men and professional men.”
Source: The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 1: Volume 1: The Shadow Kingdom
“He was . . . a strange blending of Puritan and Cavalier, with a touch of the ancient philosopher, and more than a touch of the pagan. . . . A hunger in his soul drove him on and on, an urge to right all wrongs, protect all weaker things. . . . Wayward and restless as the wind, he was consistent in only one respect—he was true to his ideals of justice and right. Such was Solomon Kane.”
Source: ROBERT E. HOWARD Ultimate Collection – 300+ Cult Classics, Adventure Novels, Western, Horror & Detective Stories, Historical Books (Including Poetry, Essays, Articles & Letters) - ALL in One Volume): Sword & Sorcery Fiction Including Complete Conan the Barbarian, Solomon Kane and Kull the Conqueror Series, as well as Weird Fiction, Fantasy Stories of the Weird West, The Cthulhu Mythos Tales and more
“Animals are neither gods nor fiends, but men in their way without the lust and greed of man.”
Source: Kull: Exile of Atlantis
“Civilization is a network and a maze of precedences and custom.”
Source: Kull: Exile of Atlantis
“When I cannot stand alone, it will be time to die.”
Source: Fantastical Tales - The Ultimate Collection of Sword & Sorcery Action-Adventures, Time Travel & Mythical Worlds: Conan the Barbarian Series, The ‘Kull the Conqueror
“It is not pleasant to come upon Death in a lonely place at midnight.”
Source: THE CONAN SAGA: The Complete Epic
“What is death but a traversing of eternities and a crossing of cosmic oceans?”
Source: Kull: Exile of Atlantis
“The only safe enemy was a headless enemy.”
Source: Jewels of Gwahlur
“Man is better without knowledge of things to come, for what is to be will be, and man can neither avert nor hasten. It is better to go in the dark when the road must pass a lion and there is no other road.”
Source: Kull: Exile of Atlantis
“Life is but a web spun of ghosts and dreams and illusions.”
Source: The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 1: Volume 1: The Shadow Kingdom
“It is better to go in the dark when the road must pass a lion and there is no other road.”
Source: Kull: Exile of Atlantis
“I have put off the past like a worn-out cloak.”
Source: The Hour of the Dragon: American modern Literature
“My body seems a mere encumbrance to me; an imbecillic wagon, hitched to the horse of desire, which is the soul.”
“One objection I have heard voiced to works of this kinddealing with Texasis the amount of gore spilled across the pages. It can not be otherwise. In order to write a realistic and true history of any part of the Southwest, one must narrate such things, even at the risk of monotony.”
“A woman in such an emotional tempest is as perilous as a blind cobra to any about her.”
Source: ROBERT E. HOWARD Ultimate Collection – 300+ Cult Classics, Adventure Novels, Western, Horror & Detective Stories, Historical Books (Including Poetry, Essays, Articles & Letters) - ALL in One Volume): Sword & Sorcery Fiction Including Complete Conan the Barbarian, Solomon Kane and Kull the Conqueror Series, as well as Weird Fiction, Fantasy Stories of the Weird West, The Cthulhu Mythos Tales and more
“Any but the most brutish of men must be touched with a certain awe or wonder at the baring of a woman's naked soul.”
Source: ROBERT E. HOWARD Ultimate Collection – 300+ Cult Classics, Adventure Novels, Western, Horror & Detective Stories, Historical Books (Including Poetry, Essays, Articles & Letters) - ALL in One Volume): Sword & Sorcery Fiction Including Complete Conan the Barbarian, Solomon Kane and Kull the Conqueror Series, as well as Weird Fiction, Fantasy Stories of the Weird West, The Cthulhu Mythos Tales and more
