Jim Butcher Quotes

Hands that wrap us in warmth, that hold us close. Hands that guide us to shelter, to comfort, to food. Hands that hold and touch and reassure us through our very first crisis, and guide us into our very first shelter from pain. The first thing we ever learn is that the touch of someone else's hand can ease pain and make things better.

I used to think I loved it. But now I realize that it's just dependency.

He nodded. "Someone really would get suspicious if they saw you roaming around. If I need you I'll give you a signal." "What signal?" "I'll imitate the scream of a terrified little girl," he said with a waggle of his eyebrows. He headed out the door. "Back in a minute.

They were huge, six feet long not including the tail, and as high as my belly at their shoulders. Their entirely human eyes shone, as did their bared fangs.

I hurled my fear and my loneliness, my love and my respect, my rage and my pain. I made of my thoughts a hammer, infused with the fires of creation and tempered in the icy power of the darkest guardian the earth had ever known.

There is the world that should be and the world that is. We live in one and must create the other.

Yes," Aquitaine said quietly. "The Legions will pay a terrible price so that the residents of Riva can flee. But if they do not, the city will fall into chaos, and the civilians will die." He shook his head. "This way, perhaps half of the legionares will survive the retreat. Even odds. If we are forced to defend the city to our last man, they will all die, Countess. For nothing. And they know it." He nodded. "They'll fight.

I even heard that they can bring people back from the dead."
"Jesus," Butter swore.
"I kinda doubt they had anything to do with that one."
"No, no, I meant --"
"I know what you meant. t was a joke, Butters.

Where instinct fails, intellect must venture.

It hurts!" bellowed Ramirez drunkenly, flinging a last pair of bolts at a fleeing ghoul. "Ow! Ow, it hurts! It hurts to be this *good*!

I swear, this stupid town. Why does every hideous supernatural thing that happens happen here? I'm gone for a few months and augh. Be right back. Grssll frrrsl rassle mrrrfl.

Holy water, a couple cloves of garlic, vials of salt, and iron fillings filled the basket, intended to be door prizes for anything that showed up in an attempt to suck my blood, carry me off to faerieland, or sell me stale cookies.

The dead don't need justice. That's for those of us who are left looking down at the remains.

Andi's eyes widened. "Bob. . .is it really him?"
"Yes, but he works for the bad guys now," Bob said. "It's probably safest to shoot him.

He gave me an inscrutable look that said maybe he would and maybe he wouldn't. Mister was a cat, and cats generally considered it the obligation of the universe to provide shelter, sustenance, and amusement as required. I think Mister considered it beneath his dignity to plan for the future.

It made me feel better. Mouse might not have been the
smartest creature on earth, but he was steady, kind, loyal, and
was possessed of the uncanny wisdom of beasts for knowing
whom to trust. I might not have been a superhero, but Mouse
thought that I was pretty darned cool. That meant something. It
would have to be enough.

Smiling always seems to annoy people more than actually insulting them. Or maybe I just have an annoying smile.

I shied away from that line of thought, lest it bring up too many old memories.

Fading light means more than just the end of another day. Night is when terrible things emerge from their sleep and seek soft flesh and hot blood.

There is hinkiness afoot with regard to my, ah, disposition.

planning became a great deal simpler and easier when one didn't have the additional bother of working out how to survive said plan.

Don't yadda yadda the Lord, Harry. It's disrespectful.

I snorted. "They still make you read Dickens in school? Great Expectations?" "Yeah." "You can stay at home and hide if you want - and wind up like Miss Havisham," I said. "Watching life through a window and obsessed with how things might have been." "Dear God," she said. "You've just made Dickens relevant to my life." "Weird, right?" I asked her, nodding.

About thirty feet from the door, Molly abruptly stopped in her tracks and said, "Harry."
I paused and looked back at her.
Her eyes were wide. She said, "I sense ... "
I narrowed my eyes. "Say it. You know you want to say it."
"It is not a disturbance in the Force, she said, her voice half-exasperated.

You must be Warden Ramirez."
This is the part where I got nervous. Ramirez loved women. Ramirez never shut up about women. Well, he never shut up about anything in general, but he'd go on and on about various conquests and feats of sexual athleticism and
"A virgin?" Lara blurted. Lara blurted. She turned her head to me, grey eyes several shades paler than they had been, and very wide. "Really, Harry, I'm not sure what to say. Is he a present?

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Each creature had something it excelled at, he supposed. Humans could manage knots easily, and cats could do everything else.

See, here's the thing. Morgan was right: you can't win them all. But that doesn't mean that you give up. Not ever. Morgan never said that part - he was too busy living it.

She's going to do nothing but try to trick information out of me that I shouldn't be giving her, Mac," I said.
"Ungh," Mac agreed.
"Why did I say yes?"
Mac shrugged.
"She's pretty," I said. "Smart. Sexy."
"Ungh."
"Any red-blooded man would have done the same thing."
"Hngh," Mac snorted.
"Well. Maybe not you."
Mac smiled a bit, mollified.
"Still. It's going to make trouble for me. I must be crazy to go for someone like that." I picked up my sandwich, and sighed.
"Dumb," Mac said.
"I just said she was smart, Mac."
Mac's face flickered into that smile, and it made him look years younger, almost boyish. "Not her," he said. "You.

We've both got into the blue beetle. He got into the red door, I got into the white one.

In the course of my life, I have more than once been too ignorant to know that something was impossible before I did it anyway.

The path of excess leads to the palace of wisdom, he said, and turned for the door.

I simply described him in accurate terms. If he finds himself insulted by the truth, it's hardly my concern. A

Over the course of many encounters and many years, I have successfully developed a standard operating procedure for dealing with big, nasty monsters.
Run away.

Predator is not property," Grimm said in a calm, level tone. "She is not my possession. She is my home. Her crew are not my employees. They are my family. And if you threaten to take my home and destroy the livelihood of my family again, Commodore, I will be inclined to kill you where you stand.

I kicked him in the head with my rented formal shoes. My shoe went flying off, which I was pretty sure never happened to James Bond. The

It was never too late to learn something. The past is unalterable in any event. The future is the only thing we can change. Learning the lessons of the past is the only way to shape the present and the future.

I mean it," I said. "You're in danger."
"Relax, Harry. I'm not letting anyone lick me, and I'm not looking anyone in the eyes. It's kind of like visiting New York.

There is something holy, something divine, hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it.'
'What's that supposed to mean?' I asked.
'That the good that will come is not always obvious. Nor easy to see. Nor in the place we would expect to find it. Nor what we personally desire. You should consider that the good being created by the events this night may have nothing to do with the defeat of supernatural evils or endangered lives. It may be something very quiet. Very ordinary.

Answer my question, Dresden,' Nicodemus growled. 'What is that?'
'A precaution against getting stuck in deep snow,' I said. 'He's training to be a Saint Bernard.'
'Excuse me?' Nicodemus said.
I mimed covering one of Mouse's ears with my hand and stage-whispered, 'Don't tell him that they don't actually carry kegs of booze on their collars. Break his little heart.

With your head, the wall breaks first.

Thomas looked like someone's painting of the forgotten Greek god of body cologne. He had long hair so dark that light itself could not escape it, and even fresh from the shower it was starting to curl. His eyes were the color of thunderclouds, and he never did a single moment of exercise to earn the gratuitous amount of ripple in his musculature. He was wearing jeans and no shirt
his standard household uniform. I once saw him answer the door to speak to a female missionary in the same outfit, and she'd assaulted him in a cloud of forgotten copies of The Watchtower. The tooth marks she left had been interesting.

I don't know about your true form, but the weight of your ego sure is pushing the crust of the earth toward the breaking point.

Whatever," I said. "It's getting cloying in here. Are we there yet?" He smiled. "Jerk." "Wuss." "Jackass." "Pansy." "Philistine." "Dandysprat." "Butthead." "Whiner ...

I love you. Why it worked right then, why the webbing of my godmother's spell frayed as though the words had been an open flame, I don't know. I haven't found any explanation for it. There aren't any magical words, really. The words just hold the magic. They give it a shape and a form, they make it useful, describe the images within. I'll say this, though: Some words have a power that has nothing to do with supernatural forces. They resound in the heart and mind, they live long after the sounds of them have died away, they echo in the heart and the soul. They have power, and that power is very real. Those three words are good ones.

I leaned closer and gave her the look I usually save for rampaging demons and those survey people at malls.

A tumbleweed went rolling by in the street. I'm not even kidding. An actual, literal tumbleweed. Man, Oklahoma.

EASTER HAS BEEN CANCELED - THEY FOUND THE BODY

That was the entire reason to have battle commanders in the first place - so that one man could balance the advantages of logic and reason against the emotional, insane demands of close battle.

I can't believe I'm about to say this," I said. "So think real careful about where this is coming from. Have you people ever considered *talking* when you've got a problem?

Guard glowered at me in silence, of course. It was an act. No one could resist my bluff and manly charisma. In his heart of hearts, he wanted to be friends with me. I just knew it.

Death isn't something anyone likes to think about, but the fact is that you can't get out of it. No matter what you do, how much you exercise, how religiously you diet, or meditate, or pray, or how much money you donate to your church, there is a single hard, cold fact that faces everyone on earth: One day it's going to be over. One day the sun will rise, the world will turn, people will go about their daily routines - only you won't be in it. You'll be still. And cold.

Rowl reminded himself that cats were eternally patient, and that he would not simply explode if he did not fling himself from Littlemouse's arms and go exploring. Which was not to say that he could not do so if he wished, because cats were also their own masters. He decided that his patience was practically legendary- which was fortunate ...

I'm not stupid. I've got eyes. I see some things everyone else tries to pretend aren't there. This vampire craze sweeping the nation. Why the hell shouldn't there be some genuine vampires in it?

It. Wasn't. Right. No, it wasn't. But the world wasn't a fair place, was it? And I had more reason to know that than most people twice my age. The world wasn't nice, and it wasn't fair. People who didn't deserve it suffered and died every single day. So what?
So somebody ought to do something about it.

Martin was alphabetizing my bookshelves. They used to kill men for sacrilege like that.

My gast was pretty well flabbered.

Whenever you've got a choice, do good, kiddo. It isn't always fun or easy, but in the long run it makes your life better.

But... my choices haven't always been very good," I said.
"Whose have?" he asked.

Because even if they are doing something immoral, I'd be an idiot to start criticizing them for it if I wasn't perfect myself. Smoking is self-destructive. Drinking is self-destructive. Losing your temper and yelling at people is wrong. Lying is wrong. Cheating is wrong. Stealing is wrong. But people do that stuff all the time. Soon as I figure out how to be a perfect human being, then I'm qualified to go lecture other people about how they live their lives.

You can be as sincere as hell and still be wrong.

it would be a real pity to die when I'd finally put tabs on who had gotten me into this mess -

I flicked a comb through my wet hair, for all the good it would do, and said, "How do I look?"
"Mostly human," she said.
"That's what I was going for.

I felt my face stretch in a victorious smile. The potion had worked. I was inside. I had to suppress an urge to break into a soft shoe routine. Sometimes being able to use magic was so cool.

You always a wiseass?" "No. Sometimes I'm asleep." He

Kitai blinked slowly. "Why would you use the same word for these things? That is ridiculous."
"We have a lot of words like that," Tavi said. "They can mean more than one thing."
"That is stupid," Kitai said. "It is difficult enough to communicate without making it more complicated with words that mean more than one thing.

And the sex," I said. "It will be frequent. Possibly violent. You'll be screaming. Neighbors will make phone calls.

It turns out that Molly wasn't her mother's daughter in that respect. Charity was like the MacGuyver of the kitchen. She could whip up a five-course meal for twelve from an egg, two spaghetti noodles, some household chemicals, and a stick of chewing gum. Molly ...
Molly once burned my egg. My boiled egg. I don't know how.

Truth be told, my head was spinning so much that the car could have been doing interpretive dance in a lilac tutu and I might not have noticed.

I longed for my bed. I longed for sleep.

It is often very useful for others to think you less intelligent than you are, "Benedict said, his tone amused. "It works particularly well against those who aren't as intelligent as you in the first place.

There is, I think, humor here which does not translate well from English into sanity.

Do not read what you don't like

The deepest joys and most terrible wounds were both to be had from family. The

If I could publish actual interviews with vampires - " "Sheesh, Susan. You're reading too much off the bestseller list. In

Laughter is good for you. Nine out of ten stand-up comedians recommend laughter in the face of intense stupidity.

You can tell a lot about a man from how he treats his dog,

Why is it that you've never got the least goddamned clue what's happening inside your own head. Have you ever noticed this trend? Doesn't it bug you sometimes?

Those were long odds. Really, really long odds. Ridiculously long odds, really. When you have to measure them in astronomical units, it probably isn't a good bet.

His red hair was buzz cut, and he wore his ill-fitting suit like something that he planned to rip his way out of when he turned into the Hulk.

Not sure. Using it is trickier than most people think," I said. "You've got to keep it from drying out, and you've got to get it undiluted. It was raining, so if someone wanted my blood, they'd have had to get to it pretty quick - and it looked like Sith was keeping them busy."
"Sith?" Butters asked.
"Not what you're thinking," I said.
"Oh," he said, clearly disappointed.

Jealousy is common among lesser men,

Because a sound tree doesn't have bad roots, Amara. No enterprise of greatness
begins with treachery, with lying to the people who trust and love you

So?" Bob said. "Hat up, go kill her. Problem solved."
"Bob," I said. "You can't just go around killing people."
"I know. That's why you should do it."
"No, no. I can't go around killing people, either.

Bigots see something they expect and then they stop thinking about what is in front of them. It's probably how they got to be bigots in the first place.

Love is patient. Love is kind. Love always forgives, trusts, supports, and endures. Love never fails. When every star in the heavens grows cold, and when silence lies once more on the face of the deep, three things will endure: faith, hope, and love.

It isn't about being fair and equal. It's about the difference between right and wrong." He stared out at the bloody Elinarch. "And this was wrong.

I had about as much chance to do that as I did of backpacking my car to the top of Mount Rushmore.

Scars - the graffiti of violence. - Harry Dresden

Light shines brightest in the deepest dark!

I am pure of heart and mind," I told her. "I cannot be corrupted.

Knight takes Knight," I called into the cloudy night air. "Check.

A duel would mean a fair fight, and I hate fair fights. In the words of a murderous Faerie Queen, they're too easy to lose. Of

The very best wizards don't need much more than chalk, table salt, and a wooden spoon to pull off some remarkable stuff.

Intentions count for far less than the consequences of the actions born from them.

When people say the word "convention," they are usually referring to large gatherings of the employees of companies and corporations who attend a mass assembly, usually in a big hotel somewhere, for the purpose of pretending to learn stuff when they are in fact enjoying a free trip somewhere, time off work, and the opportunity to flirt with strangers, drink, and otherwise indulge themselves. The first major difference between a business convention and a fan-dom convention is that fandom doesn't bother with the pretenses. They're just there to have a good time. The second difference is the dress code - the ensembles at a fan convention tend to be considerably more novel.

My answer came out at once. For me, chivalry isn't dead; it's an involuntary reflex. It could have been any woman asking for help, and I'd have said the same thing. It might have taken me a second or two longer, but I would have. For Elaine, there was no need to think about it for even that long. I'll help.

I've always admired your ability to be unilaterally irritating.

Very few people understand that swords aren't dangerous, Tavi, nor hands nor arms, nor furies. Minds are dangerous. Wills are dangerous. You are heavily armed with both.

In Chicago, you can't swing a cat without hitting an Irish pub (and angering the cat), but McAnally's place stands out from the crowd.

Fear and anger always come hand in hand. Anger is my hiding place from fear, my shield and my sword against it.