Jim Butcher Quotes

Are you always a smartass?' Nope. Sometimes I'm asleep.. Jim Butcher

Are you always a smartass?'

Nope. Sometimes I'm asleep.

Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar. Jim Butcher

Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar

We have now left Reason and Sanity Junction. Next stop, Looneyville.. Jim Butcher

We have now left Reason and Sanity Junction. Next stop, Looneyville.

I'd made the vampire cry. Great. I felt like a real superhero. Harry Dresden, breaker of

I'd made the vampire cry. Great. I felt like a real superhero. Harry Dresden, breaker of monsters' hearts.

Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.. Jim Butcher

Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.

Everyone is down on pain, because they forget something important about it: Pain is for the

Everyone is down on pain, because they forget something important about it: Pain is for the living. Only the dead don't feel it.

The characters within a book were, from a certain point of view, identical on some fundamental

The characters within a book were, from a certain point of view, identical on some fundamental level ‒ there weren't any images of them, no physical tangibility whatsoever. They were pictures in the reader's head, constructs of imagination and ideas, given shape by the writer's work and skill and the reader's imagination. Parents, of a sort.

Because a sound tree doesn't have bad roots, Amara. No enterprise of greatness begins with treachery,

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

Jobs are a part of life. Maybe you've heard of the concept. It's called work? See,

Jobs are a part of life. Maybe you've heard of the concept. It's called work? See, what happens is that you suffer through doing annoying and humiliating things until you get paid not enough money. Like those Japanese game shows, only without all the glory.

Love is another kind of power, which shouldn't surprise you. Magic comes from emotions, among other

Love is another kind of power, which shouldn't surprise you. Magic comes from emotions, among other things. And when two people are together, in that intimacy, when they really, selflessly love each other it changes them both. It lingers on in the energy of their lives, even when they are apart.

In the name of the Pizza Lord. Charge!. Jim Butcher

In the name of the Pizza Lord. Charge!

You backbiting, poisonous, treacherous, deceitful, wicked, clever girl. If this works I'll buy you a pony..

You backbiting, poisonous, treacherous, deceitful, wicked, clever girl. If this works I'll buy you a pony.

I still can't believe, Michael said, sotto voce, that you came to the Vampires' Masquerade Ball

I still can't believe," Michael said, sotto voce, "that you came to the Vampires' Masquerade Ball dressed as a vampire.

I died. I died and someone made a clerical error and I am in Heaven.. Jim

I died. I died and someone made a clerical error and I am in Heaven.

Ack! I said. Fearless master of the witty dialogue, that's me.. Jim Butcher

Ack!" I said.

Fearless master of the witty dialogue, that's me.

Kids. You gotta love them. I adore children. A little salt, a squeeze of lemon-perfect.. Jim

Kids. You gotta love them. I adore children. A little salt, a squeeze of lemon-perfect.

You know how confusing the whole good-evil concept is for me.. Jim Butcher

You know how confusing the whole good-evil concept is for me.

Caring about someone isn't complicated. It isn't easy. But it isn't complicated, either. Kinda like lifting

Caring about someone isn't complicated. It isn't easy. But it isn't complicated, either. Kinda like lifting the engine block out of a car.

Don't mess with a wizard when he's wizarding!. Jim Butcher

Don't mess with a wizard when he's wizarding!

So. You get handed a holy sword by an archangel, told to go fight the forces

So. You get handed a holy sword by an archangel, told to go fight the forces of evil, and you somehow remain an atheist. Is that what you're saying?

Likest thou jelly within thy doughnut?

I’ve had a tense couple of days. And I’ve got to tell you, burning someone’s face off sounds like a great way to relax.

She frowned at me. "You need some rest. You look like hell. And you're obviously tired enough to have gotten the giggles."

Wizards don't giggle," I said, hardly able to speak. "This is cackling.

I let out a battle cry. Sure, a lot of people might have mistaken it for a sudden yelp of unmanly fear, but trust me. It was a battle cry.

Hell's holy stars and freaking stones shit bells.

You rush a miracle worker, you get lousy miracles!

Murphy hung up and I said, to the still-open line, "Hey, if you've got someone watching my place, could you call the cops if anyone tries to steal my Star Wars poster? It's an original."

Then I vindictively hung up on the FBI. It made my inner child happy.

The man once wrote: Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger. Tolkien had that one mostly right.

I stepped forward, let the door bang closed, and snarled, "Fuck subtle.

If I was on the road to Hell, at least I was going in style.

In the action business, when you don't want to say you ran like a mouse, you call it 'taking cover.' It's more heroic.

Hell's bells, irony blows.

I'm so pretty, it's hard for me to think of myself as intelligent.

You're such a cynic," Molly said.

"I think cynics are playful and cute.

I love being a wizard. Every day is like Disneyland.

- Did you really save the world ?...
- Mostly I was saving my own ass. Just happend that the world was in the same spot.

Heroism doesn't pay very well. I try to be cold-blooded and money-oriented, but I keep screwing it up.

A succubus on the set. Strike that, the health-conscious kid sister made it two… succubuses. Succubusees? Succubi? Stupid Latin correspondence course.

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

Regardless of what I think about Islam or Wicca or any other religion, the fact is that it's a group of people. Every faith has its ceremonies. And since it's made up of people, every faith also has its assholes.

See? This is why I'm not religious. I couldn't possibly keep my mouth shut long enough to get along with everyone else.

I have nightmares about hell, where all I do is add up numbers and try to have conversations with people like you.

Don't call me a dinosaur. It isn't fair to the dinosaurs. What did a dinosaur ever do to you?

I think that men ought to treat women like something other than weaker men with breasts.

Nobody can be bad at everything. There’s no such thing as a perfect screwup.

Age is always advancing and I'm fairly sure it's up to no good.

Home is where, when you go there and tell people to get out, they have to leave.

Bite me, faerie fruitcake.

Sullen monosyllabism, a sure sign of sleep deprivation.

Life would be unbearably dull if we had answers to all our questions.

Son. Everyone dies alone. That's what it is. It's a door. It's one person wide. When you go through it, you do it alone. But it doesn't mean you've got to be alone before you go through the door. And believe me, you aren't alone on the other side.

Pain is a byproduct of life. That’s the truth. Life sometimes sucks. That’s true for everyone. But if you don’t face the pain and the suck, you don’t ever get the other things either. Laughter. Joy. Love. Pain passes, but those things are worth fighting for. Worth dying for.

But the only way never to do the wrong thing is never to do anything.

Many things are not as they seem: The worst things in life never are.

There are things you can't walk away from. Not if you want to live with yourself afterward.

It isn't good to hold on too hard to the past. You can't spend your whole life looking back. Not even when you can't see what lies ahead. All you can do is keep on keeping on, and try to believe that tomorrow will be what it should be - even if it isn't what you expected.

There're things we keep hidden from one another. Things we hide from ourselves. Things that are kept hidden from us. And things no one knows. You always learn the damnedest things at the worst possible times.

I'm dealing with a lot of scary things. I think you have to react to them. And you either laugh at them or you go insane.

Life is too short, Harry. And there's nowhere near enough joy in it. If you find it, grab it. Before it's gone.

Apocalypse is a frame of mind." [Nicodemus] said then. "A belief. A surrender to inevitability. It is a despair for the future. It is the death of hope.

Know your enemy. Know yourself. Only then may you achieve victory.

If you go to your death rather than do everything you might to prevent what is happening, you are merely committing suicide and trying to make yourself feel better about it. That is the act of a coward. It is beneath contempt.

It bothered me that he was right. Without Sir Stuart's intervention, I'd have been dead again already.

That's right-you heard me: dead again already.

I mean, come on. How screwed up is your life (after- or otherwise) when you find yourself needing phrases like that?

When you die, do you want to feel ashamed of what you've done with your life? Feel ashamed of what your life meant?

Man. Being mostly dead is hard on a guy.

God isn't about making good things happen to you, or bad things happen to you. He's all about you making choices-exercising the gift of free will. God wants you to have good things and a good life, but He won't gift wrap them for you. You have to choose the actions that lead you to that life.

I wouldn't burden any decent system of faith by participating in it... I'm not agnostic. Just nonpartisan. Theological Switzerland, that's me.

But I don't understand God. I don't understand how he could see the way people treat one another, and not chalk up the whole human race as a bad idea.

Hope is a force of nature. Don't let anyone tell you different.

I sometimes give myself excellent advice. Occasionally, I even listen to it.

Bob, would you be willing to take on Evil Bob?"

Bob's eyes darted nervously. "I'd . . . prefer not to. I'd really, really prefer not to. You have no idea. That me was crazy. And buff. He worked out.

Let come the forces of night! We will stand!"
"We will get the hell out of here is what we will do," I muttered.

Knowledge is the ultimate weapon. It always has been.

I know how you feel," I said. "You run into something you totally don't get, and it's scary as hell. But once you learn something about it, it gets easier to handle. Knowledge counters fear. It always has.

I am blind and limited. I would be a fool think myself wise. And so, not knowing what the universe means, I can only try to be responsible with the knowledge, the strength, and the time given to me. I must be true to my heart.

Isana felt her throat tighten.
"We failed." Serai lifted her chin and patted Isana's arm firmly.
"We have not yet succeeded. There is a difference.

This is Waldo Butters, and his geek penis is longer and harder than any of ours put together.

It's all right to be afraid. You just don't let it stop you from doing your job.

Fear is a part of life. It's a warning mechanism. That's all. It tells you when there's danger around. Its job is to help you survive. Not cripple you into being unable to do it.

Courage is about learning how to function despite the fear, to put aside your instincts to run or give in completely to the anger born from fear. Courage is about using your brain and your heart when every cell of your body is screaming at your to fight or flee - and then following through on what you believe is the right thing to do.

Revenge is like sex, Mister Dresden. It's best when it comes on slow, quiet, until it all seems inexorable.

Epic sex?" I sputtered. "By what standards, precisely, is sex judged to be epic?"

"And tons and tons of mortal simps like you used as pawns." Bob sighed happily, ignoring my question. "There are no words. It was like the Lord of the Rings and All My Children made a baby with the Macho Man Randy Savage and a Whac-A-Mole machine.

Paranoia is a survival trait when you run in my circles. It gives you something to do in your spare time, coming up with solutions to ridiculous problems that aren't ever going to happen. Except when one of them does, at which point you feel way too vindicated.
- Harry Dresden, Changes, Jim Butcher

...The next time I opened my eyes, I was in the morgue.
This, all by itself, is enough to really ruin your day.
I was lying on the examining table, and Butters, complete with his surgical gown and his tray of autopsy instruments, stood over me.
'I'm not dead!' I sputtered. 'I'm not dead!'
- Harry Dresden, Death Masks, Jim Butcher

My laboratory,' I said, experimentally, drawing out each syllable. 'Why is it that saying it like that always makes me want to follow it with 'mwoo-hah-hah-hahhhhh'? '
'You were overexposed to Hammer Films as a child?'
- Harry Dresden & Bob the Skull, Changes, Jim Butcher

Rain was coming down in sheets. I could hear it, on the concrete outside and on the old building above me. It creaked and swayed in the spring thunderstorm and the wind, timbers gently flexing, wise enough with age to give a little, rather than put up stubborn resistance until they broke. I could probably stand to learn something from that.

Do you really think you can win?'
'Yeah. Hell, Ortega is only the third or fourth most disturbing thing I've tangled with today.'
'But even if you do win, what does it change?'
'Me getting kiilled now. That way, I get to be killed later tonight instead.'
- Susan Rodriguez & Harry Dresden, Death Masks, Jim Butcher

Monsters are born of pain, and grief, and loss, and anger. Your heart is full of them.-
-"And?"
And it makes you vulnerable.

You beg fate to make your fears into reality, Aleran. But for the moment, they are only fears. They may come. If so, then face them and overcome them. Until then, pay them no mind. You have enough to think on.

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 am the foremost collector of velvet Elvii in the city of Chicago," I said at once.

"Elvii?" Marcone inquired.

"The plural would be Elvises, I guess," I said. "But if I say that too often, I start muttering to myself and calling things 'my precious,' so I usually go with the Latin plural.

Time after time, history demonstrates that when people don't want to believe something, they have enormous skills of ignoring it altogether.

Being a wizard gives you more power than most, but it doesn't change your heart. We're all human. We're all of us equally naked before the jaws of pain.

The fire of my tribulations had not simply been pain to be endured. It had been an agent of transformation. After all that I'd been through, I'd changed. Not for the worse, I was pretty sure-at least not yet. But only a moron or a freaking lunatic could have faced the things I had and remained unfazed by them.

When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching - they are your family.

I don't care about whose DNA has recombined with whose. When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching-they are your family.

There’s nothing that makes you more insane than family. Or more happy. Or more exasperated. Or more . . . secure.

A bolt of warmth, fierce with joy and pride and gratitude, flashed through me like sudden lightning. I don’t care about whose DNA has recombined with whose. When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching - they are your family. And they were my heroes.

The human mind is not a terribly logical or consistent place.

The human mind isn't a terribly logical or consistent place. Most people, given the choice to face a hideous or terrifying truth or to conveniently avoid it, choose the convenience and peace of normality. That doesn't make them strong or weak people, or good or bad people. It just makes them people.

Every soul is special. They’re all beautiful. They’re all far more significant than anyone on this rock realizes. I think when people are at their best, they’re acting in accordance with their soul. The ones who have gone bad don’t have bad souls. They’ve just given up on keeping in touch with them.

Life is not notable for its overabundance of certainty.

Fire isn't always an element of destruction. Classical alchemical doctrine teaches that it also has dominion over another province: change.

You don't go walking into the proverbial lion's den lightly. You start with a good breakfast.

I put on the boots and kicked some monster ass.

There is a primal reassurance in being touched, in knowing that someone else, someone close to you, wants to be touching you. There is a bone-deep security that goes with the brush of a human hand, a silent, reflex-level affirmation that someone is near, that someone cares.

Murphy watched me thoughtfully for several empty seconds. Then she said, very gently, "You're a good man, Harry."

I swallowed and bowed my head, made humble by the tone of her voice and the expression on her face, more than the words themselves.

Not always rational," she said, smiling. "But you're the best kind of crazy.

Maybe you know the monsters, Martin," Murphy said quietly. "But I know the guy who stops them. And if they don't return the girl, we'll make them regret it." She nodded at me and said, "Let's go. We can watch Dresden kill the bitch.

I choose my battles, Dresden. Not you." She looked up at me calmly. "Let me put this in terms that will get through your skull: My friend is going to save a child from monsters. I'm going with him. That's what friends do, Harry.

Thomas was an annoying wiseass who tended to make everyone he met want to kill him, and when I have that much in common with someone, I can't help but like him a little.

Children have their own kind of power. When you're teaching them, protecting them, you are more than you thought you could be. More understanding, more patient, more capable, more wise.

All power is the same. Magic. Physical strength. Economic strength. Political strength. It all serves a single purpose-it gives its possessor a broader spectrum of choices. It creates alternative courses of action.

I hate what you represent."
...
"Power without conviction." Isana replied, her tone lifeless, matter of fact.
"Ambition without conscience. Decent folk suffer at the hands of those like you.

It gets kind of zen after awhile, life is a journey, time is a river, the door is ajar.

...the cab of the truck heated up nicely, its windows fogging. I felt like a Dickens character. I thought about explaining that to Mouse, just to occupy my thoughts, but he was suffering enough without being forced to endure Dickens, even by proxy.

Id me didn't have to be concerned with long-term consequences. He was my instinctive, primitive self, driven by my most primal impulses. I wondered, briefly, if 'id' and 'idiot' came from the same root.

I've always felt that the best whips and chains are in the mind. With a little creativity, the physical ones are hardly necessary.

We are not going to die."

Butters stared up at me, pale, his eyes terrified. "We're not?"

"No. And do you know why?" He shook his head. "Because Thomas is too pretty to die. And because I'm too stubborn to die." I hauled on the shirt even harder. "And most of all because tomorrow is Oktoberfest, Butters, and polka will never die.

Harry," Bob drawled, his eye lights flickering smugly, "what you know about women, I could juggle.

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