This list is missing quite a few good ones. But my two votes go to 28. That phrase IS 40,000. It explains the entire setting, it's feel, it's hopelessness, the way it shows a scenario in which everything has gone wrong for everyone. It, in twelve words, describes this entire misbegotten galaxy. This isn't a place where great Empires fight against one another with valour and bravery; no. This is a place where fallen people desperately try to salvage what they can from the ruins of their long-past glory. Where no-one refuses to accept their end is nigh - they may know it is, but they will endure to the bitter end. A single individual has no meaning, and every victory is hollow; for for every victory, ten more are lost. To quote a Thought for the Day: "For every battle honour, a thousand heroes die alone, unsung, and unremembered." This is the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, and there is only War.
