Each must find their own way. If those in our heartland had witnessed the savageries of the voids as have we they would know this. The hand of each of the great starfares is turned against the other; none will join their strength together just to see their ancient enemies prosper. Neither should we.
This List of Famous Quotes contains all the quotes made by Tau, or over Tau. They come from many different source and are the same ones used in the “Famous Quotes” menu on the Website. The quotes used are 'official' quotes. Official in this case means quotes from sources endorsed by Games Workshop. These sources include: Forge World books, Black Library novels, etc. If you want to add a 'official' quote that is not yet in the list, please post a comment (including proper source quotation) and the quote will then be submitted.
Quote
Quote Source
Source
”A Thousand fibres connect each of us with our fellow Tau and along those fibres our deeds run as causes which come back to us as effects. Everything we do must be in the furtherance of the Greater Good lest we return to the Mont'au, the Terror.”
Shas'o'Vior'la'Kais, Fire Warrior commander
Codex: Tau Empire, page 5
”It is our technology that will enable us to prevail in this galaxy. It is our shared sense of honour and commonality of cause that unites us and will give us the power to defeat our enemies.”
Shas’el’Sa’cea’Or’es, Fire caste Commander
Codex: Tau Empire, page 8
”It is well that they are known as the Water caste. One might as well try to nail the sea to the wall as pin them down with a straight answer. They flow around your words until they wear you down, like the trickle of water that over time will split the rock.”
Rogue trader Guarnerius
Codex: Tau Empire, page 11
”One of their light walkers carried a weapon of lethal effect. It fired a form of ultra-high velocity projectile. I saw one of our tanks after having been hit by it. There was a small hole punched in either flank – one the projectile’s entry point, the other its exit. The tiny monition had passed through the vehicle with such speed that everything within the hull not welded down had been sucked out through the exit hole. Including the crew. We never identified their bodies, for all that remained of them was a read stain upon the ground, extending some twenty metres from the wreck.”
Major Kane, Mordant 607th Heavy Armoured Regt.
Codex: Tau Empire, page 14
”It is as we join with others, in a way that only the Tau can, in shared engagement to the Greater Good, that we find ourselves able to fully realize our true potential. And that is the final source of our hopes and intentions.”
Aun’el’T’au’Tam’ya, Ethereal caste
Codex: Tau Empire, page 15
”The strength of your force may be calculated by multiplying its weight by its velocity. Strive always to maximize both and victory shall be yours.”
Commander Puretide – The Forty Second Meditation of the Way of the Warrior
Codex: Tau Empire, page 16
”They are fierce indeed these Kroot, and savage. I look upon them and tremble at their ferocity. I can only hope that when the enemy sees them they tremble as I do.”
Por’vre Tau Cho, Water caste envoy to Sy’l’kell prior to the ambush of the 17th Brimlock Dragoons.
Codex: Tau Empire, page 17
”I have received your messages, acquainting me that these worlds belong to your Emperor, your master. In return I am to inform you that the said worlds belong to his Ethereal Majesty, Aun’o’Bork’an’Vral, my master, by right of settlement. Should you wish to gain similar rights you must submit yourselves to his wisdom as members of the Tau empire.”
Por’el’Tau’n’Ukos, Water caste negotiator
Codex: Tau Empire, page 39
”The question of the timing of the commencement of hostilities is one upon which you must meditate most deeply. Once your decision is arrived at, it must be pursued with the utmost energy.”
Commander Puretide – The Thirty Seventh Meditation on the Way of the Warrior
Codex: Tau Empire, page 40
”It burns so briefly, the light of my children, so briefly. But, by the Greater Good, it burns so bright!”
Aun’Va
Codex: Tau Empire, page 42
”Each must find their own way. If those in our heartland had witnessed the savageries of the voids as have we they would know this. The hand of each of the great starfares is turned against the other; none will join their strength together just to see their ancient enemies prosper. Neither should we.”
Attr. Commander Farsight 765.M41
Codex: Tau Empire, page 44
”To follow any path other than the Tau’va is to doom us all. Only together and with courage and discipline shall we stand victorious. Fight with fire and courage and nothing can stand against us.”
Commander Shadowsun
Codex: Tau Empire, page 46
”Learn to shorten your reach! If your foe can come close enough to negate your striking power, all stratagem is lost and when all stratagem is lost, the battle is lost.”
Attr. O’Shovah 757.M41
Codex: Tau, page 22
”There are two kinds of conduct the Ethereals will not countenance. The first is a failure to reflect upon what is for the Greater Good of the Tau race. The second is the deliberate refusal to follow the path of the Greater good when it is clear what it must be.”
Por’ui’Dal’yth’Ukos, Water caste envoy
Codex: Tau, page 24
”They got ded big shooty guns dat’ll kill tons of boyz, but if yer can get near em den you’ve got a chance. Just gotta make sure you bring loads of boyz, coz you ain’t gonna have a whole lot left when you get close enough ta crump em.”
Warlord Skarmork The Great Despoiler
Codex: Tau, page 30
”Our tanks were useless. As soon as we broke cover, their battlesuits’ heavy guns were locked on to us. I swear it was as though they had someone nearby aiming for them before they shot. And when they did shoot… Emperor’s mercy! Their guns punched through our armour like it was paper. All I could see were trails of fire where the projectiles had ignited the air.”
Guardsman Cauley, 25th Graian Rifles
Codex: Tau, page 30
”I have taken great pains not to laugh at the actions of aliens, nor to weep at them or to hate them, but to understand them.”
Attr. Aun’Shi
Codex: Tau, page 52
”I have followed the myriad potential of the Tau with great interest. Though barely even striplings compared to us, I feel a strange protectiveness towards them. In time I believe they will exceed even our greatest feats and master the darkness within their souls.”
Eldrad Ulthran, Farseer of Ulthwé Craftworld
Codex: Tau, page 61
”It appears to me that, lacking the sense of unity that might inform them otherwise, these men have come to think that they might own the stars themselves, even the spaces in between them. Only by our presence, I think, might we now convince them otherwise.”
Kor’oTau’n’Viel
BFG: Magazine #19, page 14
”They are aliens, granted. But if ever I witness another creature so furiously keen to wipe out the greenskinned scum, it could be a ship’s plasma-rat and I wouldn’t think twice about having them fight by my side.”
Rogue Trader Ennumerius Skurien
BFG: Magazine #19, page 28
”At least in space they cannot eat their enemies.”
Kor’el’Dal’yth’Dasthui – on the usefulness of the Kroot
BFG: Armada, page 108
”You misunderstand, this is Tau space, despite what the Gue’la may claim, and you are welcomed to it as friend. We too have suffered difficulty with the Or’es’la, since it seems they wish no unity. We would be honoured to have you fight alongside us against this common enemy. You will find it to the benefit of both our peoples. You will find it, I have no doubt, to be for the greater good.”
Por’o’Dal’yth’V’Rok greets the Thurm Brotherhood during first contact with the Demiurg.
BFG: Armada, page 109
”Ours is to be an empire of worlds, not merely of castes or nations, or races or peoples. To simply control the worlds which we claim as our own will not be enough. – We must control the paths between them also, or be divided, and so fail.”
The Air Caste Petition ahead of the Tau’n Campaign
BFG: Armada, page 112
”Caution in the face of threat.”
Teaching of the Yie’rla’rettan Meditation
Novel: Fire Warrior, page 256
”There is no sense in anger.”
Teaching of the D’havre Meditation
Novel: Fire Warrior, page 67
”Stranger, I bid you greetings in the name of the Tau. If you are reading this then you will have encountered one of our messenger drones and are therefore a spacefaring race. Soon you will see more evidence of us. This is no cause for alarm. When you encounter one of our ships or outposts then welcome it. We have much to offer a faithful friend. We are five castes, one people. The Earth caste build and manufacture, the Air caste pilot and navigate, the Water caste liaise and arbitrate, the Fire caste guard our holdings and defeat our enemies. All are bound to the dream of bringing a new way to the universe. I hope you will choose to share the culture, technology and protection of the Tau Empire. The one constant in the universe is change, the wise adapt. Believe in our destiny.”
Transcript from alien probe discovered in the Koath System 696.M41
Codex: Tau, back page
”It saddens me greatly that we must take arms against the peoples of the galaxy. By their deaths they deny themselves the liberation that is only to be found in total surrender to the Great Good.”
