Jim Butcher Quotes

“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.”

Source: Storm Front

“Wait. You work for me?"
"I prefer to think of it as managing your incompetence.”

Source: Death Masks

Jim Butcher book Cold Days

Source: Cold Days

“Michael smiled at me a little. “You’re a good man, Harry. But you’re making the same mistake Nicodemus always has—and the same one Karrin did.” “What mistake?” “You all think the critical word in the phrase ‘Sword of Faith’ is ‘sword.”

Jim Butcher book Skin Game

Source: Skin Game

Jim Butcher: Trending quotes

“In the name of the Pizza Lord. Charge!”

Jim Butcher book Summer Knight

Source: Summer Knight

“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.”

“We're always disappointed when we find out someone else has human limits, the same as we do. It's stupid for us to feel that way, and we really ought to know better, but that doesn't seem to slow us down.”

Source: Small Favor

“Evil isn’t the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as Evil, maybe more so, and it’s a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against Stupid. That might actually make a difference.”

Source: Small Favor

Jim Butcher Quotes

Jim Butcher book Vignette

“Sanya, Knight of the Cross: Laugh whenever you can. Keeps you from killing yourself when things are bad. That and vodka.”

“I had to smile at the man. I mean, you have to smile at idiots and children.”

Source: The Dresden Files, Changes (2010), Chapter 33

Jim Butcher book Fool Moon

Source: Fool Moon

“Harry Dresden: The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault.”

“You're in America now," I said. "Our idea of diplomacy is showing up with a gun in one hand and a sandwich in the other and asking which you'd prefer.”

Source: The Dresden Files, Blood Rites (2004), Chapter 1, Opening Line

“What is the point of having free will if one cannot occasionally spit in the eye of destiny?”

Source: The Dresden Files, Turn Coat (2009), Chapter 24
Context: Harry Dresden: You’re in America now. Our idea of diplomacy is showing up with a gun in one hand and a sandwich in the other and asking which you’d prefer.
Anastasia Luccio: Did you bring a sandwich?
Harry Dresden: What do I look like, Kissinger?

Jim Butcher book White Night

Source: White Night

“If I need you I'll give you a signal.'
'What signal?'
'I'll imitate the scream of a terrified little girl”

“Have you ever felt despair? Absolute hopelessness? Have you ever stood in the darkness and known, deep in your heart, in your spirit, that it was never, ever going to get better? That something had been lost, forever, and that it wasn't coming back?”

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

Source: Storm Front

Jim Butcher book Summer Knight

Source: Summer Knight

“Ack!" I said.

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

“Me and polite have never been on close terms.”

Source: Changes

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

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

Source: Death Masks

Jim Butcher Proven Guilty

Source: Proven Guilty

“Wizards and computers get along about as well as flamethrowers and libraries.”

“If you can't stop the bad thoughts from coming to visit, at least you can make fun of them while they're hanging around.”

Source: Changes

“I know it's not thematically in tune with my new job and all, but I find it effective. Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day," I say. "But set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. Tao of Pratchett. I live by it.”

Source: Turn Coat

Jim Butcher book Cold Days

Source: Cold Days

“A technicality I'm prepared to hide wildly behind.”

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

Source: Storm Front

Jim Butcher book Mean Streets

Source: Mean Streets

“There's a fine line between audacity and idiocy.”

“I've never lost a duel to the death. Not one.”

Source: Van Darkholme TDNコスギ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXsTOpysLNI <br class="br">Source: Turn Coat

Jim Butcher Captain's Fury

Source: Captain's Fury

“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.”

Jim Butcher book Grave Peril

Source: Grave Peril

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

Jim Butcher book Ghost Story

Source: Ghost Story

“There are old swordsmen and bold swordsmen. But few old, bold swordsmen.”

Jim Butcher book Academ's Fury

Source: Academ's Fury

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

“You don't take your cat with you to go bird shopping. Not because the cat isn't polite, but because he's a cat.”

Source: Changes

“Ha-ha! Ah-hahahaha! I am wizard; hear me roar!”

Source: Changes

“Oh, what would you like on your vegetarian pizza?" "Dead pigs and cows," I said. She glanced up at me and wrinkled her nose. "They're vegetarians," I said defensively.”

Source: Small Favor

“Body or mind, heart or soul, we're all human, and we're supposed to feel pain. You cut yourself off from it at your own risk.”

Source: Blood Rites

“Things are not always as bad as they seem. Sometimes, the darkness only makes it easier to see the light.”

Source: Small Favor

Jim Butcher book Skin Game

Source: Skin Game

“Harry Dresden: There was a sound of impact, a raspy, dry scream, and the vampire went down hard. It lay on the ground like a butterfly pinned to a card, arms and legs thrashing uselessly. Its chest and collarbone had been crushed. By an entire frozen turkey. A twenty-pounder. The plucked bird must have fallen from an airplane overhead, doubtlessly manipulated by the curse. By the time it got to the ground, the turkey had already reached its terminal velocity, and was still hard as a brick. The drumsticks poked up above the vampire's crushed chest, their ends wrapped in red tinfoil. The vampire gasped and writhed a little more. The timer popped out of the turkey. Everyone stopped to blink at that for a second. I mean, come on. Impaled by a guided frozen turkey missile. Even by the standards of the quasi-immortal creatures of the night, that ain't something you see twice. "For my next trick," I panted into the startled silence, "anvils."”

Jim Butcher The Dresden Files

The Dresden Files, Blood Rites (2004)

“Open eyes are of little use when the mind behind them is closed.”

Jim Butcher Codex Alera

Codex Alera, Princeps' Fury (2008)

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

“Are you always a smartass?'

Nope. Sometimes I'm asleep.”

“Harry Dresden: Paranoid? Probably. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face.”

Source: Blood Rites

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

Source: The Dresden Files, Storm Front (2000), Chapter 1

Jim Butcher Dead Beat

Source: Dead Beat

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

Jim Butcher book Grave Peril

Source: Grave Peril

“Sleep is God. Go worship.”

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

Source: Death Masks

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

Source: Turn Coat

Jim Butcher book Summer Knight

Source: Summer Knight

“Of course Evil's afoot. If it had switched to the metric system it'd be up to a meter by now.”

“Most of the bad guys in the real world don't know that they are bad guys. You don't get a flashing warning sign that you're about to damn yourself. It sneaks up on you when you aren't looking.”

“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?”

“There's more magic in a baby's first giggle than in any firestorm a wizard can conjure up, and don't let anyone tell you any different.”

Source: Death Masks

Jim Butcher book Fool Moon

Source: Fool Moon

“Malcolm Dresden: 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." His fingers squeezed me tight. "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."”

Jim Butcher Dead Beat

Source: The Dresden Files, Dead Beat (2005), Chapter 43

“There are bad things in the world. There's no getting away from that. But that doesn't mean nothing can be done about them. You can't abandon life just because it's scary, and just because sometimes you get hurt.”

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

Source: Turn Coat

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

Source: Death Masks

Jim Butcher book White Night

Source: White Night

“Thomas Raith: An errand is getting a tank of gas or picking up a carton of milk or something. It is not getting chased by flying purple pyromaniac gorillas hurling incendiary poo.”

“Harry Dresden: Maybe it wasn't anything I'd done. Maybe the monsters had gone on strike. Yeah right.”

Source: The Dresden Files, Blood Rites (2004)