From the Pages of DIABLO

Which way is the right path, as I stand upon this
chaotic crossroad of hate...
How many ways are there to roam
on this dark and damned road of Fate...
"There are many ways, my son,
to find where the souls of Demons remain...
But it takes only one second of despair and of doubt
until at last, your soul, they will gain...
Inherit these lands, these things, these dreams
that are yours, forever, to adore...
For there is no life, in the depths of chaos, my son,
for you to explore..."
C. Vincent Metzen

"To try to find strength in righteousness is folly.
For He seeks to topple those who have the farthest to fall."

"But I, in truth, have been
once here before:
that savage witch Erichte, she
who called
the shades back to their bodies,
summoned me.
My flesh had not been long
stripped off when she
had me descend through all the
rings of Hell,
to draw a spirit back from the
Betrayer's circle.
That is the deepest and the
darkest place, the farthest from the heaven
girds all:
so rest assured, I know the
pathway all"
- Dante

"Pierce me with steel, rend me with claw and fang.
As I die a legend is born for another generation to follow..."

"Wisdom is earned...not given."

"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a 
region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there
encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes 
back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow 
boons on his fellow men."
-Joseph Campbell

"Might and magic are spokes on the same wheel...
In lacking one you lack both..."

"Not even the sun can banish the phantoms of our land.  
Nevertheless, we huddle in the darkness and prey for dawn..."

"Honor and courage are a warrior's right and left hands"

"The only future Peace has to offer is War..."

"I have seen the horrors that lie beneath the earth.  I have
felt the icy breath of darkness upon my skin, and have been 
gripped by the skeletal talons of death itself.  What prayer
can ever heal the bleedingmarks of Terror's embrace?"

"A warrior's true strength lies not in the body, but in the spirit..."

"I am not driven by hatred.
I am not driven by fear.
I am not driven by desire,
duty, or any rationale.
I can no longer feel any of these.
All that remains is Retribution;
Cold and hard and final..."

"Gird thyself with the weapons of knowledge and the armor
of wisdom.  Victory is won as much through strength of
mind and will as through brawn and steel."

"It is easy to go down into Hell; night and day, the gates of 
dark Death stand wide but to climb back again, to retrace 
one's steps to the upper air - There's the rub, the task."
-Virgil, The Aeneid

"Break the bones and the body will heal.
Break the spirit, and the body will die..."

"It is easier to stab someone in the back, than it is to look them
in the eyes.  Society is built upon this principle, and it is 
universal amongst those who rule..."

"The burning tongues of Hell lap at our heels as we run, 
screaming from its horrible, gaping maw.  There can be 
no escape from the relentless beast of terror..."

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby 
become a monster"
-Friedrich Nietzsche

"Any Master of battle should always take stock of his friends 
as well as his enemies.  Knowing both can, in time, be profitable."

"But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts
Benighted, walks under the midday sun
Himself is his own dungeon..."
-John Milton

"Either slain thou shalt gain heaven, or conquering thou 
shalt enjoy the earth.  Therefore arise, son of Kunti, unto 
battle, making a firm resolve.  Holding pleasure and pain 
alike, gain and loss, victory and defeat, then gird thyself for
 battle: thus thou shalt not get evil."
-The Bhagavad Gita

"When all magic fails, rely on three feet of steel and a strong arm..."

"All things roll here: horrors of midnights,
campaigns of a lost year
Dungeons disturbed, and graves of lights;
Echoing on these shores, still clear,
Dead ecstasies of questing knights-
yet how the wind revives us here!"
-Arthur Rimband

"I am Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, and I have the power
to be born a second time.  I am the divine hidden Soul who 
created the gods and gives sepulchral meals to the denizens 
of the deep, the place of the dead, and heaven...Hail, lord of 
the shrine that stands in the center of the earth.  He is I, and I am he!"
-Egyptian Book of the Dead

"O Rose thou art sick
the invisible worm
that flies in the night
in the bowling storm:
has found out thy bed
of crimson joy:
and his dark secret love
does thy life destroy."
-William Blake

"Strange and strident.  It shrilled terror to the ears that heard it 
through the halls side wall, the grisly plaint of God's enemy, his
song of ill success, the sobs of the damned one bewailing his pain."
-Beowulf