Best Quotes
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From Douglas Adams:
"In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
and
"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
There is another theory which states that this has already happened."
Also, this one, apparently from Elbert Hubbard:
"Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive."
"In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
and
"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
There is another theory which states that this has already happened."
Also, this one, apparently from Elbert Hubbard:
"Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive."
"If we affirm one moment, we thus affirm not only ourselves but all existence. For nothing is self-sufficient, neither in us ourselves nor in things; and if our soul has trembled with happiness and sounded like a harp string just once, all eternity was needed to produce this one event?and in this single moment of affirmation all eternity was called good, redeemed, justified, and affirmed."
? Friedrich Nietzsche
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid."
-Q
"Victory goes to... THOSE WITH COURAGEEEEE!!!!!"
-Guy Shishioh
"Fall
You are alone, child. There is only darkness for you, and only death for your people. These ancients are only the beginning. I will command a great and terrible army. We will sail to a billion worlds. We will sail until every light has been extinguished. You are strong, child. But I am beyond strength. I am the end. And I have come for you, Finn."
The Lich
Best. Villain monologue. Ever
and since everybody's getting out Pratchett quotes....
"LORD, WE KNOW THERE IS NO GOOD ORDER EXCEPT THAT WHICH WE CREATE....THERE IS NO HOPE BUT US. THERE IS NO MERCY BUT US. THERE IS NO JUSTICE. THERE IS JUST US. ALL THINGS THAT ARE, ARE OURS. BUT WE MUST CARE. FOR IF WE DO NOT CARE WE DO NOT EXIST. IF WE DO NOT EXIST, THEN THERE IS NOTHING BUT BLIND OBLIVION. AND EVEN OBLIVION MUST END SOME DAY. LORD, WILL YOU GRANT ME JUST A LITTLE TIME? FOR THE PROPER BALANCE OF THINGS. TO RETURN WHAT WAS GIVEN. FOR THE SAKE OF PRISONERS AND THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS.
LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?"
-DEATH, Reaper Man
? Friedrich Nietzsche
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid."
-Q
"Victory goes to... THOSE WITH COURAGEEEEE!!!!!"
-Guy Shishioh
"Fall
You are alone, child. There is only darkness for you, and only death for your people. These ancients are only the beginning. I will command a great and terrible army. We will sail to a billion worlds. We will sail until every light has been extinguished. You are strong, child. But I am beyond strength. I am the end. And I have come for you, Finn."
The Lich
Best. Villain monologue. Ever
and since everybody's getting out Pratchett quotes....
"LORD, WE KNOW THERE IS NO GOOD ORDER EXCEPT THAT WHICH WE CREATE....THERE IS NO HOPE BUT US. THERE IS NO MERCY BUT US. THERE IS NO JUSTICE. THERE IS JUST US. ALL THINGS THAT ARE, ARE OURS. BUT WE MUST CARE. FOR IF WE DO NOT CARE WE DO NOT EXIST. IF WE DO NOT EXIST, THEN THERE IS NOTHING BUT BLIND OBLIVION. AND EVEN OBLIVION MUST END SOME DAY. LORD, WILL YOU GRANT ME JUST A LITTLE TIME? FOR THE PROPER BALANCE OF THINGS. TO RETURN WHAT WAS GIVEN. FOR THE SAKE OF PRISONERS AND THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS.
LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?"
-DEATH, Reaper Man
?The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity?a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop.?
― Isaac Asimov, Foundation
?Tell me why the stars do shine,
Tell me why the ivy twines,
Tell me what makes skies so blue,
And I'll tell you why I love you.
Nuclear fusion makes stars to shine,
Tropisms make the ivy twine,
Raleigh scattering make skies so blue,
Testicular hormones are why I love you. ?
― Isaac Asimov
?Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept??
― Frank Herbert, Heretics of Dune
"Educational bureaucracies dull a child's questing sensitivity." Odrade explaining. "The young must be damped down. Never let them know how good they can be. That brings change. Spend lots of committee time talking about how to deal with exceptional students. Don't spend any time dealing with how the conventional teacher feels threatened by emerging talents and squelches them because of a deep-seated desire to feel superior and safe in a safe environment. "
― Frank Herbert
All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.
― Frank Herbert
Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect all who seek it. She knew the chances were great that such people were susceptible to corruption or already lost.
― Frank Herbert
"We should grant power over our affairs only to those who are reluctant to hold it and then only under conditions that increase the reluctance."
― Frank Herbert
Quite naturally, holders of power wish to suppress wild research. Unrestricted questing after knowledge has a long history of producing unwanted competition. The powerful want a "safe line of investigations," which will develop only those products and ideas that can be controlled and, most important, that will allow the larger part of the benefits to be captured by inside investors. Unfortunately, a random universe full of relative variables does not insure such a "safe line of investigations."
― Frank Herbert
― Isaac Asimov, Foundation
?But you haven't tried. You haven't tried once. First you refused to admit that there was a menace at all! Then you reposed an absolutely blind faith in the Emperor! Now you've shifted it to Hari Seldon. Throughout you have invariably relied on authority or on the past?never on yourselves."
His fists balled spasmodically. "It amounts to a diseased attitude?a conditioned reflex that shunts aside the independence of your minds whenever it is a question of opposing authority. There seems no doubt ever in your minds that the Emperor is more powerful than you are, or Hari Seldon Wiser. And that's wrong don't you see?"
For some reason, no one cared to answer him.
Hardin continued: "It isn't just you. It's the whole Galaxy. Pirenne heard Lord Dorwin's idea of scientific research. Lord Dorwin thought the way to be a good archaeologist was to read all the books on the subject?written by men who were dead for centuries. He thought that the way to solve archaeological puzzles was to weight the opposing authorities. And Pirenne listened and made no objections. Don't you see that there's something wrong with that?"
Again the note of near-pleading in his voice.
Again no answer. He went on: "And you men and half of Terminus as well are just as bad.. We sit here, considering the Encyclopedia the all-in-all. We consider the greatest end of science is the classification of past data. It is important, but is there no further work to be done? We're receding and forgetting, don't you see? Here in the Periphery they've lost nuclear power. In Gamma Andromeda, a power plant has undergone meltdown because of poor repairs, and the Chancellor of the Empire complains that nuclear technicians are scarce. And the solution? To train new ones? Never! Instead they're to restrict nuclear power."
And for the third time: "Don't you see? It's galaxy-wide. It's a worship of the past. It's a deterioration?a stagnation!?
― Isaac Asimov, Foundation
His fists balled spasmodically. "It amounts to a diseased attitude?a conditioned reflex that shunts aside the independence of your minds whenever it is a question of opposing authority. There seems no doubt ever in your minds that the Emperor is more powerful than you are, or Hari Seldon Wiser. And that's wrong don't you see?"
For some reason, no one cared to answer him.
Hardin continued: "It isn't just you. It's the whole Galaxy. Pirenne heard Lord Dorwin's idea of scientific research. Lord Dorwin thought the way to be a good archaeologist was to read all the books on the subject?written by men who were dead for centuries. He thought that the way to solve archaeological puzzles was to weight the opposing authorities. And Pirenne listened and made no objections. Don't you see that there's something wrong with that?"
Again the note of near-pleading in his voice.
Again no answer. He went on: "And you men and half of Terminus as well are just as bad.. We sit here, considering the Encyclopedia the all-in-all. We consider the greatest end of science is the classification of past data. It is important, but is there no further work to be done? We're receding and forgetting, don't you see? Here in the Periphery they've lost nuclear power. In Gamma Andromeda, a power plant has undergone meltdown because of poor repairs, and the Chancellor of the Empire complains that nuclear technicians are scarce. And the solution? To train new ones? Never! Instead they're to restrict nuclear power."
And for the third time: "Don't you see? It's galaxy-wide. It's a worship of the past. It's a deterioration?a stagnation!?
― Isaac Asimov, Foundation
?And Mallow laughed joyously. "You've missed, Sutt, missed as badly as the Commdor himself. You've missed everything, and understood nothing. The Empire has always been a realm of colossal resources. They've calculated everything in planets, in stellar systems, in whole sectors of the Galaxy. Their generators are gigantic because they thought in gigantic fashion.
"But we,?we, our little Foundation, our single world almost without metallic resources,?have had to work with brute economy. Our generators have had to be the size of our thumb, because it was all the metal we could afford. We had to develop new techniques and new methods,?techniques and methods the Empire can't follow because they have degenerated past the stage where they can make any vital scientific advance.
"With all their nuclear shields, large enough to protect a ship, a city, an entire world; hey could never build one to protect a single man. To supply light and heat to a city, they have motors six stories high,?I saw them?where ours could fit into this room. And when I told one of their nuclear specialists that a lead container the size of a walnut contained a nuclear generator, he almost choked with indignation on the spot.
"Why, they don't even understand their own colossi any longer. The machines work from generation to generation automatically and the caretakers are a hereditary caste who would be helpless if a single D-tube in all that vast structure burnt out.
"The whole war is a battle between these two systems; between the Empire and the Foundation; between the big and the little. To seize control of a world, they bribe with immense ships that can make war, but lack all economic significance. We, on the other hand, bribe with little things, useless in war, but vital to prosperity and profits.
"A king, or a Commdor, will take the ships and even make war. Arbitrary rulers throughout history have bartered their subjects' welfare for what they consider honor, and glory, and conquest. But it's still the little things in life that count?and Asper Argo won't stand up against the economic depression that will sweep all Korell in two or three years.?
― Isaac Asimov, Foundation
"But we,?we, our little Foundation, our single world almost without metallic resources,?have had to work with brute economy. Our generators have had to be the size of our thumb, because it was all the metal we could afford. We had to develop new techniques and new methods,?techniques and methods the Empire can't follow because they have degenerated past the stage where they can make any vital scientific advance.
"With all their nuclear shields, large enough to protect a ship, a city, an entire world; hey could never build one to protect a single man. To supply light and heat to a city, they have motors six stories high,?I saw them?where ours could fit into this room. And when I told one of their nuclear specialists that a lead container the size of a walnut contained a nuclear generator, he almost choked with indignation on the spot.
"Why, they don't even understand their own colossi any longer. The machines work from generation to generation automatically and the caretakers are a hereditary caste who would be helpless if a single D-tube in all that vast structure burnt out.
"The whole war is a battle between these two systems; between the Empire and the Foundation; between the big and the little. To seize control of a world, they bribe with immense ships that can make war, but lack all economic significance. We, on the other hand, bribe with little things, useless in war, but vital to prosperity and profits.
"A king, or a Commdor, will take the ships and even make war. Arbitrary rulers throughout history have bartered their subjects' welfare for what they consider honor, and glory, and conquest. But it's still the little things in life that count?and Asper Argo won't stand up against the economic depression that will sweep all Korell in two or three years.?
― Isaac Asimov, Foundation
?Tell me why the stars do shine,
Tell me why the ivy twines,
Tell me what makes skies so blue,
And I'll tell you why I love you.
Nuclear fusion makes stars to shine,
Tropisms make the ivy twine,
Raleigh scattering make skies so blue,
Testicular hormones are why I love you. ?
― Isaac Asimov
?Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept??
― Frank Herbert, Heretics of Dune
"Educational bureaucracies dull a child's questing sensitivity." Odrade explaining. "The young must be damped down. Never let them know how good they can be. That brings change. Spend lots of committee time talking about how to deal with exceptional students. Don't spend any time dealing with how the conventional teacher feels threatened by emerging talents and squelches them because of a deep-seated desire to feel superior and safe in a safe environment. "
― Frank Herbert
All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.
― Frank Herbert
Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect all who seek it. She knew the chances were great that such people were susceptible to corruption or already lost.
― Frank Herbert
"We should grant power over our affairs only to those who are reluctant to hold it and then only under conditions that increase the reluctance."
― Frank Herbert
Quite naturally, holders of power wish to suppress wild research. Unrestricted questing after knowledge has a long history of producing unwanted competition. The powerful want a "safe line of investigations," which will develop only those products and ideas that can be controlled and, most important, that will allow the larger part of the benefits to be captured by inside investors. Unfortunately, a random universe full of relative variables does not insure such a "safe line of investigations."
― Frank Herbert
I will destroy everything... I will create a monument to non-existence!
~Kefka
Why do people insist on creating things that will inevitably be destroyed? Why do people cling to life, knowing that they must someday die? ...Knowing that none of it will have meant anything once they do?
~Kefka
Bleh! You people make me sick! You sound like lines from a self-help book! If that's how it's going to be... I'll snuff them all out! Every last one of your sickening, happy little reasons for living!
~Kefka
Life...Dreams...Hope...Where do they come from? And where do they go? None of that junk is enough to fulfill your hearts! Destruction...Destruction is what makes life worth living! Destroy! Destroy! Destroy! Let's destroy everything!
~Kefka
~Kefka
Why do people insist on creating things that will inevitably be destroyed? Why do people cling to life, knowing that they must someday die? ...Knowing that none of it will have meant anything once they do?
~Kefka
Bleh! You people make me sick! You sound like lines from a self-help book! If that's how it's going to be... I'll snuff them all out! Every last one of your sickening, happy little reasons for living!
~Kefka
Life...Dreams...Hope...Where do they come from? And where do they go? None of that junk is enough to fulfill your hearts! Destruction...Destruction is what makes life worth living! Destroy! Destroy! Destroy! Let's destroy everything!
~Kefka
"An educated man should know everything about something, and something about everything." Is perhaps a bit better than the Heinlein one
And now some more from Dune
"You should never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die"
"Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife ? chopping off what?s incomplete and saying: "Now it?s complete because it?s ended here."
"If you need something to worship, then worship life ? all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!"
"Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible"
"Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you someone who's covering mistakes. Real boats rock"
"How soothing it is to forget. And how dangerous!"
And now some more from Dune
"You should never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die"
"Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife ? chopping off what?s incomplete and saying: "Now it?s complete because it?s ended here."
"If you need something to worship, then worship life ? all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!"
"Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible"
"Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you someone who's covering mistakes. Real boats rock"
"How soothing it is to forget. And how dangerous!"
I wrote a thread about this a long while back, but one of the "Jackal tapes" in Far Cry 2 really got my attention. It's one of a series of interview snippets between an American arms dealer called "The Jackal" and investigative reporter Reuben Oluwagembi; most of them are sort of just fluff (not helped by the fact that the Jackal's voice actor seems to be rushing through his lines), but then there was this tape, where the Jackal calls out Reuben for what seems to be a glaring hole in his morality:
"Why Africa? People need weapons all over the world. Why here? Why my home?"
"Every place is somebody's home, pal, but it doesn't stop people from going to war. I don't start wars, I didn't start this one; it seems like it's your fellow Africans that want each other dead. Besides, why should I give a shit about your home? Why should anyone? You want me to go somewhere else... so is there someone's home that you don't give a shit about?"
"What if it was your home?"
"War is my home."
"Why Africa? People need weapons all over the world. Why here? Why my home?"
"Every place is somebody's home, pal, but it doesn't stop people from going to war. I don't start wars, I didn't start this one; it seems like it's your fellow Africans that want each other dead. Besides, why should I give a shit about your home? Why should anyone? You want me to go somewhere else... so is there someone's home that you don't give a shit about?"
"What if it was your home?"
"War is my home."
"Prices will rise, politicians will lie, and you, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were younger, prices were reasonable, politicians were honest, and young people respected their elders." -Baz Luhrmann
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason." -Mark Twain
And here's one that creeped me right the hell out, and still does. The last lines of the movie "Session 9":
Doctor: And where do you live, Simon?
Simon: I live...in the weak...and the wounded, Doc.
I realize it's confusing without context, but I always took it to mean that anyone--ANYONE--is capable of horrific, inhumane behavior if they're hurt in the right way. Plus the way the line is read, and the dude's voice, make it super chilling.
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason." -Mark Twain
And here's one that creeped me right the hell out, and still does. The last lines of the movie "Session 9":
Doctor: And where do you live, Simon?
Simon: I live...in the weak...and the wounded, Doc.
I realize it's confusing without context, but I always took it to mean that anyone--ANYONE--is capable of horrific, inhumane behavior if they're hurt in the right way. Plus the way the line is read, and the dude's voice, make it super chilling.
One that made me chuckle for quite a bit after reading it.
This is just a goldmine.
and Yavanna returned to Aule; and he was in his smith, pouring molten metal into a mould. 'Eru is bountiful,' she said. 'Now let thy children beware! For there shall walk a power in the forests whose wrath they will arouse at their peril.'
'Nonetheless they will have need of wood,' said Aule, and he went on with his smith-work.
'Nonetheless they will have need of wood,' said Aule, and he went on with his smith-work.
This is just a goldmine.
Personally I think the whole thing is pretty good. My other favorite bit from it is "Don't be reckless with others' hearts; don't put up with people who are reckless with yours."Old Father Eternity said:
Fuck, spartenX ninja'd two of my favorites...
"The galaxy is dark, empty and cold. It spins inevitably toward death. You will die too, one day. Perhaps you will have longer than we have. We hope so. But one day you too must vanish. Until that time, you must light the darkness. You must make the night less empty. We are all small, and the universe is vast. But a universe filled with voices saying "I am here" is far greater than a universe silent. One voice is small, but the difference between zero and one is as great as one and infinity. And when your time is passing, please send this message on, so the next voice can speak against the darkness."
- SCP-1281
"Faithful? enlightened? ambitious? brethren. In but a single decade, a few mere swipes of the pendulum, we have gathered a sacrifice to Khorne that will be made legend. Though it was a simpler, weaker voice that illuminated me during my centuries upon the Judgment of Carrion.
It was Khorne?s messenger, who showed me the true path of freedom from our pathetic corpse-Emperor.
And what is this path, this meaning, this purpose, to which we gather the skulls of our foes?
It is nothing. There is no meaning, no purpose. We murder. We kill. It is mindless savagery, this UNIVERSE is mindless.
In mere hours, billion will die, innocent, guilty, strong and weak, honest and deceitful, ALL of them!
They will scream, they will burn, and for no purpose but that mighty Khorne may revel in their bloodshed.
And united in this void of purpose, fear, or duty? we, shall at long last, be FREE!
Blood! for the Blood God! Skulls! for the Skull Throne!
Let! the galaxy! BURRRRRN!!!"
? Chapter Master Azariah Kyras, Dawn of War Retribution
edit: changed to a different version of the video
"The galaxy is dark, empty and cold. It spins inevitably toward death. You will die too, one day. Perhaps you will have longer than we have. We hope so. But one day you too must vanish. Until that time, you must light the darkness. You must make the night less empty. We are all small, and the universe is vast. But a universe filled with voices saying "I am here" is far greater than a universe silent. One voice is small, but the difference between zero and one is as great as one and infinity. And when your time is passing, please send this message on, so the next voice can speak against the darkness."
- SCP-1281
"Faithful? enlightened? ambitious? brethren. In but a single decade, a few mere swipes of the pendulum, we have gathered a sacrifice to Khorne that will be made legend. Though it was a simpler, weaker voice that illuminated me during my centuries upon the Judgment of Carrion.
It was Khorne?s messenger, who showed me the true path of freedom from our pathetic corpse-Emperor.
And what is this path, this meaning, this purpose, to which we gather the skulls of our foes?
It is nothing. There is no meaning, no purpose. We murder. We kill. It is mindless savagery, this UNIVERSE is mindless.
In mere hours, billion will die, innocent, guilty, strong and weak, honest and deceitful, ALL of them!
They will scream, they will burn, and for no purpose but that mighty Khorne may revel in their bloodshed.
And united in this void of purpose, fear, or duty? we, shall at long last, be FREE!
Blood! for the Blood God! Skulls! for the Skull Throne!
Let! the galaxy! BURRRRRN!!!"
? Chapter Master Azariah Kyras, Dawn of War Retribution
This is one I just stumbled on recently
And I wish I had your confidence
In our own sweet human kind
But your words are just the ashes
Of what all the others left behind
From Guillotine's Release by Dougie MacLean
And I wish I had your confidence
In our own sweet human kind
But your words are just the ashes
Of what all the others left behind
From Guillotine's Release by Dougie MacLean
Best quote? Basically anything Oscar Wilde ever said/wrote. The man had a legendary wit. Here are a few:
"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go."
"I can resist anything except temptation. The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it."
"If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you."
"It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious."
"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."
"Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes."
I could go on and on with these, but there you go. He's one of my favorite authors of all time.
"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go."
"I can resist anything except temptation. The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it."
"If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you."
"It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious."
"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."
"Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes."
I could go on and on with these, but there you go. He's one of my favorite authors of all time.
This was found in the narration of the visual novel Fate/Stay Night's realta nua ending (which I consider canon).
It just speaks to me as a hopeful writer.
Simple as that.
I'm only laughing on the outside / My smile is just skin deep / If you could see inside I'm really crying / You might join me for a weep.
Don't know if this short poem was written for the Joker or if he was quoting something else, but it's great.
Timur-Lang by Robert Howard is also excellent.
The warm wind blows through the waving grain / Where are the glories of Tamerlane? / The nations stood up, ripe and tall / He was the sickle that reaped them all. / But the sickle shatters and leaves no trace / and the grain grows green on the desert's face.
Don't know if this short poem was written for the Joker or if he was quoting something else, but it's great.
Timur-Lang by Robert Howard is also excellent.
The warm wind blows through the waving grain / Where are the glories of Tamerlane? / The nations stood up, ripe and tall / He was the sickle that reaped them all. / But the sickle shatters and leaves no trace / and the grain grows green on the desert's face.