Robert E. Howard

“Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.”

“Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph.”

“Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.”

“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.”

“Know, O prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of...”

“What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie? I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky.”

“I'd rather be a racing boat, one hour of sweep and strain, than a bare-masted, rotting hulk, a-soaking in the rain.”

“The wider a man’s memories, the better his opportunities for comparisons.”

“When a man is in despair, he is a dangerous animal.”