Robert E. Howard quotes

Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing. (Robert E. Howard)
But not all men seek rest and peace; some are born with the spirit of the storm in their blood. View quote
Robert E. Howard
I believe, like you, that civilization is a natural and inevitable consequence, whether good or evil I am not prepared to state. View quote
Robert E. Howard
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. View quote
Robert E. Howard
I am unable to rouse much interest in any highly civilized race, country or epoch, including this one. View quote
Robert E. Howard
A great poet is greater than any king. View quote
Robert E. Howard
Don't you think that as a people, Americans have less poetry, real poetry, in their souls than any other nations? View quote
Robert E. Howard
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? View quote
Robert E. Howard
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. View quote
Robert E. Howard
Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph. View quote
Robert E. Howard
If I was wealthy I'd never do anything but poke around in ruined cities all over the world - and probably get snake-bit. (Robert E. Howard)
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. View quote
Robert E. Howard
Aye, you white dog, you are like all your race; but to a black man gold can never pay for blood. View quote
Robert E. Howard
I see in the papers where Roy Guthrie committed suicide. Why, I wonder? View quote
Robert E. Howard
It is not pleasant to come upon Death in a lonely place at midnight. View quote
Robert E. Howard
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. View quote
Robert E. Howard
The more I see of what you call civilization, the more highly I think of what you call savagery! View quote
Robert E. Howard
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. The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing; Rush in and die, dogs-I was a man before I was a king. View quote
Robert E. Howard
Coming, as I do, from mountain folk on one side and sea followers on the other, there are few old songs of the hills or the sea with which I am not familiar. View quote
Robert E. Howard
I reckon if I ever marry, she will have to be a strong woman in a circus or something. View quote
Robert E. Howard
I never saw a man fight as Conan fought. He put his back to the courtyard wall, and before they overpowered him the dead men were strewn in heaps thigh-deep about him. But at last they dragged him down, a hundred against one. (Robert E. Howard)
Rome got some peachy pastings when she tried to lick the Irish. View quote
Robert E. Howard
What shall a man say when a friend has vanished behind the doors of Death? A mere tangle of barren words, only words. View quote
Robert E. Howard
The poem you sent me was as fiery and virile as anything you've ever written – or anybody else, for that matter. Especially the second part went to my brain like the flaming liquor of insanity. No one else besides Jack London has the power to move me just that way. View quote
Robert E. Howard
Come, my friend, let us cuss things in general. View quote
Robert E. Howard