Quotes by Wilhuff Tarkin

Rule through the fear of force rather than force itself.

Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.

Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances!

I find their tactics ineffective. The Jedi Code prevents them from going far enough to achieve victory, to do whatever it takes to win, the very reason why peacekeepers should not be leading a war.

The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I have just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.

Daala: "The Rebel Alliance won't know what hit them."
Tarkin: "Oh, they'll know, my dear. Everyone will know. That's the point."

Someone once said that politics is little more than the systematic organization of hostilities.

Never try to live decently, boy - not unless you're willing to open your life to tragedy and sadness. Live like a beast, and no event, no matter how harrowing, will ever be able to move you.

The stability of the Empire is at stake. A planet is a small price to pay.

The Jedi are extinct. Their fire has gone out of the universe. You, my friend, are all that's left of their religion.

We employ nonhumans wherever they are useful, for now. But mark my words, Raith. Humans are the future.

You would prefer another target? A military target? Then name the system! I grow tired of asking this. So it'll be the last time. Where is the Rebel base?

Of power, I could tell you much. But the time is not right. I shall only say that the Empire is close to having power such as never before – power of world-shattering proportions, you could say. Mark my words, never again will a citizen of this galaxy watch a moonrise in quite the same way. He will stare at that moon – if such it is – and remember that the Empire is firmly in control.

The average citizen deals in symbols, not rational analysis. If we present the citizen with a weapon so powerful, so immense as to defy all conceivable attack against it, a weapon invulnerable and invincible in battle, that shall become the symbol for the Empire. We may need only a handful, perhaps only one of these weapons to subjugate thousands upon thousands of worlds containing millions upon millions of beings.

Threats of insurrection must be met with strong, centralized power. One must seize the moment, and strike. Forgive the ravings of a lowly lieutenant governor, Supreme Chancellor. Moreover, I realize that it is hardly the Republic's way to answer violence with violence.

You do not know what it takes to win a war, but I do.

Failure will find you explaining why to a far less patient audience.

Krennic: "When the battle station is finished, Governor Tarkin, the Senate will be of little concern."
Tarkin: "'When' has become 'now', Director Krennic. The Emperor will tolerate no further delay. You have made time an ally of the Rebellion. I suggest we solve both problems simultaneously with an immediate test of the weapon. Failure will find you explaining why to a far less... patient audience."