Robert E. Howard: Trending quotes (page 2)

Robert E. Howard trending quotes. Read the latest quotes in collection
Robert E. Howard: 290   quotes 6   likes

“I'm not going out of my way looking for devils; but I wouldn't step out of my path to let one go by.”

Robert E. Howard

"Beyond the Black River" (1935)
Context: "There's nothing in the universe cold steel won't cut," answered Conan. "I threw my ax at the demon, and he took no hurt, but I might have missed in the dusk, or a branch deflected its flight. I'm not going out of my way looking for devils; but I wouldn't step out of my path to let one go by."

Way

“I mean my characters are more like men than these real men are, see. They’re rough and rude, they got hands and they got bellies. They hate and they lust; break the skin of civilization and you find the ape, roaring and red-handed.”

Robert E. Howard

From a letter to Harold Preece (c. January or February 1928)
Letters

Men , Hate

“When a nation forgets her skill in war, when her religion becomes a mockery, when the whole nation becomes a nation of money-grabbers, then the wild tribes, the barbarians drive in… Who will our invaders be? From whence will they come?”

Robert E. Howard

From a letter to Tevis Clyde Smith (July 1923)
Letters

Money , War , Religion , Forgetting

“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.”

Robert E. Howard

"Queen of the Black Coast" (1934)
Source: Conan the Barbarian Omnibus -The Original Stories
Context: He shrugged his shoulders. "I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom's realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer's Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep 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. Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. 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."

Love , Life

“I don't believe I ever saw an Oklahoman who wouldn't fight at the drop of a hat — and frequently drop the hat himself.”

Robert E. Howard

From a letter to H. P. Lovecraft (July 13, 1932)
Letters

Fight

“By This Axe I Rule!”

Robert E. Howard

"By This Axe I Rule!" (1967)
Variant: By This Axe I Rule!

“Aye, you white dog, you are like all your race; but to a black man gold can never pay for blood.”

Robert E. Howard

A former chief of Abombi to Conan
"The Scarlet Citadel" (1933)

Dogs

“Arus saw a tall powerfully built youth, naked but for a loin-cloth, and sandals strapped high about his ankles. His skin was burned brown as by the suns of the wastelands and Arus glanced nervously at his broad shoulders, massive chest and heavy arms, A single look at the moody, broad-browed features told the watchman the man was no Nemedian. From under a mop of unruly black hair smoldered a pair of dangerous blue eyes. A long sword hung in a leather scabbard at his girdle.”

Robert E. Howard

"The God in the Bowl" (1952)

Youth , Sun , Clothes

“[The] chief [of the gods of Cimmeria] is Crom. He dwells on a great mountain. What use to call on him? Little he cares if men live or die. Better to be silent than to call his attention to you; he will send you dooms, not fortune! He is grim and loveless, but at birth he breathes power to strive and slay into a man's soul. What else shall men ask of the gods? … There is no hope here or hereafter in the cult of my people. 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.”

Robert E. Howard

"Queen of the Black Coast" (1934)

Men , God , People , Pleasure

“Now I gazed upon him, no longer in a passionate frenzy, but in a cold contempt. I visualized long days and nights of vengeance, of fiendish ingenuity and complete consumation. My enemy was at my mercy; he lived; all the plans of hate and torture I had concieved through the long years of wrong and insult I would wreak upon him. My plans were carefully laid; I knew exactly what tortures I would use, how long I could inflict them without causing death, until my enemy at last went forth, a man ruined of soul and body. I was at peace, and content.”

Robert E. Howard

From “Revenge” in a letter to Tevis Clyde Smith (c. late Aug/early September 1927)
Letters

Death , Hate , Peace , Soul

“Like the surface of the sea was the mirror of Tuzun Thune; hard as the sea in the sun's slanting beams, in the darkness of the stars, where no eye can pierce her deeps; vast and mystic as the sea when the sun smites her in such way that the watcher's breath is caught at the glimpse of tremendous abysses. So was the mirror in which Kull gazed.”

Robert E. Howard

"The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune" (1929)

Way , Star , Sun , Sea

“Conan did not hesitate, nor did he even glance toward the chest that held the wealth of an epoch. With a quickness that would have shamed the spring of a hungry jaguar, he swooped, grasped the girl's arm just as her fingers slipped from the smooth stone, and snatched her up on the span with one explosive heave.”

Robert E. Howard

"Jewels of Gwahlur" (1935)

Girl , Spring , Wealth

“I see in the papers where Roy Guthrie committed suicide. Why, I wonder?”

Robert E. Howard

From a letter to Tevis Clyde Smith (October 5, 1923)
Letters

Suicide

“I believe, like you, that civilization is a natural and inevitable consequence, whether good or evil I am not prepared to state.”

Robert E. Howard

From a letter to H. P. Lovecraft (c. August 1930)
Letters

Nature , Evil

“Slowly the pale-faced noblemen and frightened women knelt, bowing in fear and reverence to the bloodstained giant who towered above them with his eyes ablaze.
"I am king!"”

Robert E. Howard

"By This Axe I Rule!" (1967)

Women , Fear

“Man," said he, "tell me your name, so that my brothers in Vanaheim may know who was the last of Wulfhere's band to fall before the sword of Heimdul."
"Not in Vanaheim," growled the black-haired warrior, "but in Valhalla will you tell your brothers that you met Conan of Cimmeria.”

Robert E. Howard

"The Frost-Giant's Daughter" (1953)

“By the way, I sold another story, same company. “Wolfshead” twentyfive pages $40.00. After reading it, I’m not altogether sure I wasnt off my noodler when I wrote it.”

Robert E. Howard

From a letter to Tevis Clyde Smith (October 9, 1925)
Letters

Way , Reading

“College dont amount to much anyhow. A lot of narrow minded, musty old ideas despensed by uninterested teachers to pupils who have come to college for athletics, because they considered it the stylish thing or to keep from going to work.”

Robert E. Howard

From a letter to Edna Mann (October 30, 1926)
Letters

Idea , Teachers